This racing business is hard work I tell you. At the moment we are coming up to the bottom of Victoria, slogging our way north in light winds chasing down GREAT Britain and Garmin, doing everything we can to keep HotelPlanner.com at bay and constantly scanning the AIS to see if Nasdaq pop up whilst they're hiding in Stealth Mode. The team has realised that with every knot of boat speed we can find it means we are potentially one little bit closer to Sydney. One little bit closer to cold beer, big beds and decent food (not that our mothers don't do a great job every day that is).
It's worth pointing out though that time and time again, things can go wrong on a yacht, particularly when you are racing. When this happens though, you can't hang your head in shame. You have to keep going and keep sailing and also it helps if you have a set of magical healers on board. Team Liverpool 2018 has these magical healers. In fact, we have two of them.
First off though I just want to say thanks to our non-magical healers. Now whilst James McRipper Macfee is technically our team medical assistant he is not a real doctor (not sure if you've picked up on that yet). The Good Doctor Graham Dodge is... a real doctor. Every leg so far, he has always managed to step up and help out in any medical way he can and he has helped to coach and guide McRipper along the way. Together the two of them have kept us all well and in great health. So, thanks fellas. I'd also like to point out that no major medical incident has happened however and there's no need to panic or play guess who got sick games, just a friendly thanks to the guys who keep us in good nick.
However, as I said, we do have two other healers on board
who I am convinced are magic. Somehow one wizard and one lady-wizard (we can't
say witch anymore because it offends the magical community) have managed to
disguise themselves as regular folk and come sailing with us. You all know them
as Mad Man Mikey Kidwell and Helen the Huntress Lane. These two magical people
have continually helped to heal the worst patients on the boat. Our spinnakers.
I don't know how they do it! Every leg I let McRipper loose and he rips a sail
and by the end of the leg the wizards have put it back together again! Magic, I
say!
They've also managed to keep up with all the other bits and bobs involved in
sailing and have now taken it upon themselves to become enchanted helms so that
they can try to protect the sails. Last night Helen the Huntress was in fine
form as she clawed her way back towards GREAT
Britain and Nasdaq for four hours
straight. Keep in mind that she is so short she can't even see over the helm
cage so obviously she is using telepathy to steer our course. And Mikey! Don't
get me started on how great this man is. He helms, he cleans, he trims, he
cooks, he grinds and he does it all at the ripe old age of 60-something-ish.
Yet he is clearly using voodoo magic to do it all with the strength of someone much,
much younger.
I could go on and on about these two but suffice it to say that without them and their magical ways, our boat wouldn't be nearly as good (or as good as we try to be).
So as always Think Pink and remember to be nice to people who look after you and your sails. There's every chance that they're a witch (Sorry I mean lady wizard.) and can curse you if you're not too kind.
Ta
Lance