Race 4 - Day 1
Skipper Report
18 November

Hello Team,

Welcome back, how was your break? We had a great stopover in Cape Town, although it was over in a flash, and now we are off again onto Race 4, heading down into the ‘Roaring Forties’ of the Southern Ocean, so we can cover the great circle route to get to Fremantle.

A couple of big thank yous for help in Cape Town. Firstly to Rob, for sourcing some marine ply and other materials to help build a storage system under the companionway. Thanks to all the crew’s other halves and friends who gave up time to help us out with all sorts, from deep cleaning the galley, making sail ties, providing lunch on Race Start day, and helping us show 60 children around Seattle to raise awareness of plastics in the ocean. The biggest shout out has to be to Paula’s family (Paula joins us for Leg 3 and has taken on the role of victualler). Since the moment we arrived in Cape Town, they have taken us to places to source items, help packed and stowed the food, giving a huge amount of their time to do so. Thank you all so much, it is really appreciated by us all.

So, after some emotional farewells on the dockside yesterday morning, to both outgoing crew and to loved ones, (Lorraine, hope you had a good flight home and loved the day we managed to steal together on Friday) we were off into the bay for a short course race, before heading south and onwards towards Australia. The setting was stunning, with Table Mountain as the backdrop and about 20 knots of breeze. ‘Number 1’ was on the helm and with the crew settling back into the routine, we were happy with our start. It worked well for us and put Seattle as the fourth boat to round Virtual Mark Hartshorn to get onto the main course. The crew send their best wishes to Visit Sanya, China and Punta del Este and hope they can get underway again soon and we are glad that no one was injured in the collision.

Since then, we have been under the Yankee 2 with mainly a full mainsail, although reefed for a couple of hours. Currently, we are sailing under a lovely moonlit night and have tacked over to head roughly in the right direction. We have been sailing in company, then on our own, to be joined by another later, as the fleet picks its path to get south of the Cape and into a developing low pressure system that will start our sleigh ride east, while avoiding the predicted light winds directly off the Cape.

Well, I am off to the deck now, while the crew re-bed themselves into the routine of sailing the boat. The fact it's been a bit of a beat today, a few of the crew have been visited by the ‘Green Monster’ and are feeling a little sorry for themselves. I am sure they will be fine within a day.

I have decided to give up asking rhetorical questions this race – what’s the point?

That’s all for now,

Dave and ‘Number 1’