‘ello folks,
Crikey folks it’s been a month already so 'pinch punch first day of the month'. Well I don’t want to speak about the sailing I will let the Race Viewer tell the story there but at least we are all in the same weather system which does marginally soften the (lack of) blows. It’s like in the movie Jurassic Park (the first one) when they are all sat in the Jeep and they hear this dull thud and the glass of water on the dash starts to ripple then “Rrrooooaaaarrr” a T-Rex appears through the trees. Well, the same can be said for our Mainsheet flogging and when the falls (Mainsail rope) snatches tight, the boat shakes and the sail snaps. This starts off as a gentle thud but as the wind decreases it becomes louder and louder… I’m half expecting Godzilla to pop out the water next.
Well, while my mind has gently been imploding my crew have tried unknowingly to try and keep me sane unfortunately much like WTC Logistics blogs our general deck (and below deck) conversations often turn to toilet humour. Andy was having a little trouble shall we say, "lightning the load". So Jane has come up with a euphemism - she said, "Open the Jammer". You can all have had a chuckle to this! Towards the end of the watch Ivan was dishing out the biscuits and we found that Australia has a health star rating for their food. For example, a bottle of sparkling water got five stars and beef jerky got one! Well the biscuits got half a star so by our logic, we just need to eat more biscuits to get our star rating up... simple.
Right and I’ll leave you all with a weekend debate, which is your favourite Jurassic Park movie? Mine would be the second 'The Lost World'.
We’re hoping the wind will fill in before night fall, so we can get ourselves settled, but the barometer is not giving us any clues yet. The silver lining is all the torrential rain has stopped for now, I'm not complaining. I realise you back home are having your third storm in as many weeks (Compton beach must be pumping).
Come on Liverpool 4-1 and Salah will get a goal. Good luck with your half marathon Andy!
Josh, Hugo and the crew of Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam
Song of the day: Jack Johnson - You and I are going to be friends (yes, another cover Cat) and please, PLEASE, PLEASE BOAT VOICE AND RTFO TO ANY FUTURE CREW!!!!
A note from the AQP:
We were feeling a bit behind in terms of performance assessment on this boat. So onward we go asking Harpo and Jacqui our victuallers to buy egg timers so we can rationalise the rotations on the different jobs in the cockpit and increase efficiency. Within a few days, Jacqueline has found the perfect use for those egg timers: organise a "hold your breath" competition! I often give her a hard time for chatting too much at the helm or to the helm, so guess what? In order to improve our helming performance, she did refrain from talking to the helm, but it involved the person in the competition...
Any suggestions for more performance improvement?