Race 3 - Day 10
Skipper Report
02 November

Morning all,

A brief reprieve, with the first low pressure system leaving us behind and the second still chasing us down, has allowed us to restore order and prepare for round two. We hope this second system will be with us most of the way to Cape Town, so we intend to enter it in our best state.

The major project was batten replacement. Our Mainsail is designed to have a series of semi-rigid battens running forward from the leech (back edge) - of the five, three got broken shortly before the first low arrived, forcing us to sail with three reefs (not a major handicap in 40+ knot winds) for the last few days.

This afternoon, with relatively calm conditions and the ever enthusiastic Milli watch (led by Jonny Wallington, a.k.a. The Supply Chain Manager, a.k.a. Jonny Vin Rouge), we were able to drop the Main entirely and replace the broken battens. David Watkin, if you're reading this at home, a thousand thank yous for the time you spent taping and stringing those battens - without your work in prep week we would have been thoroughly stuck today.

Our return to full Main complete, we looked up and were caught off guard by the sight of an island looming large and shrouded in cloud. I had promised Jonny we would try and see Inaccessible Island, but we were twelve miles offshore and preoccupied, so actually seeing it brought out cheers and shouts of surprise all over the deck. Nightingale Island became visible shortly afterwards, both were a slightly eerie sight all the way out here. Someone joked that this was probably where they kept the dinosaurs, and it was suggested that we hide our dinosaur egg (yoghurt maker) before they came looking for it.

Josef Fuchs will be leaving us in Cape Town, which means we will soon be deprived of his Austrian Chocolate Cakes (digestives smeared with Nutella, sachertorte is this with dried apricot topping). Fortunately, Jo Court has pioneered the Uruguayan Scouse Cake (any biscuit topped with lashings of Dulce de Leche).

All the best from the crew of Imagine Your Korea

Sam