Another day spent mostly under spinnaker - Nasdaq hoisted our Code 3 (Heavyweight Spinnaker) as we rounded Virtual Mark Scilly and flew it through beautiful breezy, sunny conditions surrounded by sea rats (dolphins) and sky rats (gannets) diving for the same little fish through yesterday. Around 2000UTC we wrapped up our circumnavigation by crossing our outbound track, and shortly afterward wrapped up the Code 3 around the forestay. Currently under Code 2 (Mediumweight Spinnaker) in the grey showers more common in the Irish Sea, with just over 100nm to the finish.
A quick word then on the very select group who made it all the way around the world onboard Nasdaq:
Johnny "JC" Cole - engineer and quizmaster, Damien "Damo" Egan – Watch Leader, sail repairer and token Aussie, Andy "Where's me brew?" Greenough - bosun and mast monkey, Pete "Speighty" Speight - victualler and crash test dummy #2, Phil "Phyllis" Wilkinson - bowman, watchleader and crash test dummy #1, ... and yours truly - these days I just sign off the paperwork, do the parking and occasionally make the brews.
And a few more who were onboard very nearly the whole lap:
Dave Harries - assistant victualler and crash test dummy #3, Alex Weaver - medic and team coordinator, Jon "JW" Wedgwood - medic and sail repairer, Ineke "Ini" van der Weijden - watch leader, navigator and safety officer.
Thanks to everybody who has read these skipper blogs over the past eleven months. It hasn't always been easy thinking of things to write other than variations on: "still sailing" or "see previous blog", although Cap'n Lance (Liverpool 2018) always seems to manage somehow. I know I have enjoyed reading the other Skippers' thoughts each day, and have constantly been impressed by Dale, Matt and Bob's verbosity and vocabulary, Dave's brevity, Nikki's creativity and candour, and Conall's lyricism and grammar. I also have huge respect for those Skippers (Chris, GT, Wendo) for whom English isn't their first language, but have typed it out anyway. Seriously, it's been a pleasure working with such a great bunch of friends/colleagues/rivals - well done all of you.
Are we nearly there yet?
Cheers,
Rob