Hello Qingers!
Well, hello there. We’ve talked about wind holes before, and after a day of champagne sailing in up to about 25-30kts of wind, and boat speeds up to 20kts,we’ve fallen into another wind hole. We spent all night trying to keep the boat moving in the general direction of the next gate before the open ocean (the bit we’re all looking forward to). At the minute we have zero knots of boat speed, only being pushed along by the current and being stopped from gathering speed by the remains of the waves from yesterday, presenting a horrible slop.
We have had some close battles with our opponents, passing within 100m of each other, which adds a bit of excitement for all on watch and a chance to shout our good mornings to the other boat. Positions are changing regularly as each boat gets its own little bit of wind for a while. We watch as they slowly head off into the distance, only to catch up and pass again a number of hours later. Until we get good, steady wind this is the way it will be. Let's hope we come out of it on the right side. We can only work hard keeping what little speed we can muster when we can.
Apart from the lack of speed at the minute we are all good on board and looking forward to the ocean and our stop in Seattle to come.
Love to those at home,
Phil, Henry and the dragon riders