Race 6 - Day 4
Skipper Report
26 January
G'day to all our Aussie mates: Happy Australia Day, and enjoy the serenity! (Brino: those ducks are still hatching around the boat!)
Hhhmmmm: Burns Night and Lunar New Year yesterday, Aussie Day today, I wonder what we will celebrate tomorrow? Finding some wind hopefully, although Clipper Race weather Guru Simon Rowell is still being a bit stingy about that.
Imagine your Korea had a memorable night - Spinnaker up, wind on the beam, rushing across a flat sea beneath the Milky Way, with Leg 5 joiners Katja Mravlak and Tom Bedford in particular enjoying the conditions. Sadly that didn't last long into the morning, and we've been flopping the Windseeker around this afternoon, with the crew hunting shady patches on deck and generally melting.
We entered the Doldrums Corridor overnight, chased by WTC Logistics, Seattle, Unicef and Visit Sanya, China all within sight. Also in sight at dawn was Rossel Island, PNG: another place we've sailed past but not stopped at. The Doldrums Corridor is a means that the Clipper Race has devised to allow the fleet to motor from an area of light variable winds south of the Equator to an area of light variable winds north of the Equator, without getting stuck in an area of light variable winds in between. Full details are available on the website, but essentially we can motor through 4 degrees of latitude within a corridor 8 degrees long - where and when to "kick the donkey" or "hoist the iron topsail" is a complicated tactical decision - a real head scratcher.
Our two Korean crew members Inbeom Kim and Yooyoun Cho cooked up a treat for dinner last night: egg-fried rice with kimchi and spam in a spicy sauce, with a side order of roasted seaweed. Luckily they spotted Victualling Officer Jonny Wallington sprinkling the contents of a little paper sachet over his seaweed - he didn't have his glasses on, but it's not salt Jonny - it was desiccant! Medical crisis averted, we topped off the feast with Gill Donald's excellent Burns Night shortbread.
Cheers, Rob