Morning all,
Lots of discussions this morning of time travel on the good ship PSP. Clearly our flux capacitor is fully functional, because, as the sun went down last night, even at slightly less than 88 mph, we went back in time. Lottie patiently agreed that, even though she didn't have a clue what I was talking about, she could absolutely see two flaming trails across the sea behind us. At the surprisingly exact location of 40 00.005N we crossed the International Date Line, and went from tomorrow to yesterday. We did try to chat about what days we would like to re-live again if we had the chance (mine would definitely be our magical departure day in Portsmouth!), but it didn't really grip, and conversations turned more to milestones achieved. Halfway round the world from Portsmouth, halfway through the leg...
This has been a tough leg for us, as we have seen our commanding start evaporate, the cold and rain bite, and, worse still, a Skipper-imposed limit on hot drinks to ensure we manage our gas supplies! Even getting to this milestone has been a struggle, and we are having a brief respite to re-tie our boot laces and chew on a slice of orange before pushing on in the second half of our adventure.
We have been working really hard over the past 48 hours of pushing upwind and trying to wring just a little bit of speed out of our little ship. We and Dare To Lead are in the same weather system at the southern side of the fleet, and although only 30 miles apart, we have seen them creep steadily forward over the past couple of days. Our lunchtime meeting, usually a happy chat about the heads, wet kit in the corridor or washing up, turned into a mind-bending maths lesson on vectors, as we tried to understand how keeping the boat more upright would make us faster and help us sail closer to the wind. The afternoon watch has done an absolutely cracking job of constantly tweaking in search of that elusive quarter knot. We wait to see our next six hourly position report to find out if their endeavours have been successful.
As ever though, on PSP Logistics it's not all about the racing. It's also about the wildlife! Scorpio, Taurus and the great bear (wildlife??) stood out in a crystal-clear night sky last night. We pulled a bit old fishing gear off the rudder this morning that seemed to have a whole ecosystem of small beasties living on it, and too many reports of shark came down the companionway yesterday. There are also loads of birds around, many of which I hadn't seen before, and neither had the authors of our bird books. It might also be about cooking, judging from the smells of curry wafting from Colin and Lorenzo's galley.
In fact, the smell is so compelling that I'm going to have to leave you now. Until next time, from the other side of the world, from yesterday.
On on!!
Mike Lottie and our happy band of Marty McFlys