Leg 7 has begun by following the general but unpopular trend of the circumnavigation so far, by promising quick, beautiful kite runs in the pre-race forecast and ending up with us beating to make the first mark of Race 11. Another unsavoury reminder, I feel, of the perils of optimism.
Misery and drudgery of upwind aside, we find ourselves, for now, at the pointy end of the fleet with Qingdao keeping us company. We’ve just tacked to make the first mark and we’re very relieved that the wind kept backing, forcing all of the other boats to tack as well. It looked for a while, with us being the most leeward boat, that we’d be the only ones to be forced into this decision. But a slightly inaccurate forecast later and we’re on a port tack with the rest of fleet and counting our lucky stars that we’ve got this slim silver lining in the tough upwind cloud we live in.
Expectations for the following two days: the wind should veer to westerlies, the fleet will tack and head south and kites SHOULD go up... should…
Other than dull sailing chat, the green monster has mostly gone so at least some of our hard-working buckets can take a break. The crew are settling into their watches well but are perhaps realising that sailing could be improved with furling headsails and G&Ts. Race Director Mark, thoughts? But most importantly it’s RTWer Oli’s birthday today! We had lots of fun singing Happy Birthday to him during a headsail change earlier with the birthday boy being serenaded in English, French, German, Spanish and Dutch!
Hooroo Cobbers,
Cam, Bob and the HLB team