Race 6 - Day 3
Skipper Report
25 January

Sae hae bok mani baduseyo!

Or, for those who don't speak Korean: Happy New Year!

Sigh: it was all going so well. Overnight Imagine Your Korea gradually stretched away from Seattle and Punta del Este, then passed Unicef and WTC Logistics, then we had Qingdao and Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam in sight... until it all went wrong at sunrise when AQP Sam Cooper took the helm! Now, it's important to make clear that nobody blames him for the massive windhole we immediately fell into, it was just unfortunate timing. We flopped around slowly in all the wrong directions, testing different tacks and sail plans, and produced a GPS track that looks like a Scotsman's walk home on Burns' Night after a haggis supper with too much whisky sauce. WTC Logistics initially avoided the worst of the windhole by tacking away early but eventually succumbed, whilst Unicef sailed happily past us both...until the same thing happened to them, allowing Seattle to make up ground on all 3 of us. It was just one of those mornings.

Lunchtime restored everyone's spirits though - we celebrated Lunar New Year in Korean style, with Yooyoun Cho sporting some very stylish new clothes, Inbeom Kim wore an interesting new T-shirt, and the rest of us with face paints! The crew gave each other their good wishes for the coming Year (of the Rat), and we paid our traditional respects to King Neptune before videoing a message for our Race Crew Supporters around the world. Imogen is particularly excited about the opportunity to learn new languages onboard: in addition to English and Korean, we have several French and Spanish speakers and one Slovenian, so there may be lessons ahead in the Doldrums.

As this is also Burns' Night, Round the Worlder, Gillian Donald is proudly flying the St Andrews flag for Scotland, with our 'undercover' Scots Brian "Brains" McNealey and David Rankin. James "Dr Knot" Anderson also spent enough time north of the border to learn some of Rabbie Burns verses, and seems determined to educate the rest of us. I think it's fair to say that Gill's homemade shortbread is more eagerly anticipated, although personally I often find shortbread a little dry when served on its own...

Cheers, Rob