Ahoy there PSP Logistics watchers, and greetings from a group of people very excited to be approaching the International Date Line and the Western Hemisphere. We are now almost exactly on the other side of the world from our race start in Portsmouth. It has been a truly epic adventure so far, and there are lots more to come before the big homecoming.
We have had a much more conservative past 48 hours, as we have been mainly sailing under white sails. Initially upwind close reaching, but for the past eight hour slightly downwind, in an almost straight line to the finish. We are staying slightly to the south of the straight line at the moment, as we want to stay to the south of the several storms that are developing north of Hawaii. The winds tend to be going eastwards on the south side, and westwards on the north side, so we hope our plan, which does involve a few more miles, will pay off. Time will tell.
In the meantime, I continue with my love affair of freeze-dried strawberries. Lisa found them in Qingdao and bought many sacks of them. They are absolutely fantastic on porridge (oatmeal!) for breakfast, or simply as a snack! They almost make up for the fact we have run out of maple syrup - a nightmare for our many Canadians.
So now we continue to press on. Currently under a spinnaker, but we are expecting a shift soon. It has been raining almost continuously for the past 24 hours. A sure sign that the weather front, and the shift to colder, northerly headwinds, is coming to us soon.
Everyone remains in good spirits, keen to get to Seattle, and pushing hard to win back a few more race places.
On, on,
Mike, Lottie and the more than slightly damp and bedraggled crew of PSP Logistics
PS. Wildlife bingo bonanza yesterday. Two orcas swam really close to the boat. Magnificent. And today we saw a seal floating past and waving its flipper at us.