This is the part of Race 8 where we are bashing upwind though freezing fog across mountainous seas ... or not. Actually, we are sliding gently downwind under spinnaker across a flat sea in the hazy sunshine, wondering if the suncream supplies will last to Qingdao. Definitely not what the brochure promised, but you won't hear us complaining.
Progress is good and comfortable. We're matching course and speed with Dare To Lead on AIS nearby and we have under 400nm to those Qingdao / Tsingtao beers.
The fishing fleet continues. Ineke van der Weijden and Jon Wedgwood were playing nautical Pac-Man all night on the AIS screen as they navigated us through approximately 9 million fishing boats. Not sure who has the highest score, but we successfully weaselled our way past them all.
Amazingly, we have seen dolphins amidst all of this fishing activity - whizzing around us like phosphorescent torpedoes in the night.
Update from the Nasdaq Bistro - Abby Johnston baked the perfect loaf of bread yesterday... and then for some reason named it 'Frances'. Abby ought to be good at baking - her mother is the stunt double for Bake Off's Mary Berry.
Cheers,
Rob