Hello Team
How are you doing this, well not really sure to call it today? It could be “Heading North’ish” Thursday or “Second Sprint” Thursday or maybe it might be best to call it “Happy Birthday Alex’s Mum’s” Thursday. So Happy Birthday Jill have a great day, best wishes from Seattle, oh and by the way check your junk mail for an email.
We have concluded the first Dell Latitude Ocean Sprint and after a good start faded about midway, however we are pleased to say that the objective around building team resilience for the race across the mighty Pacific is nicely on target. With the normal key crew members, not being involved in the evolutions, allowing others to gain valuable experience and knowledge for when we leave on the 21st March. We know that race will be an exciting and no doubt the hardest challenge the team have faced to date on this edition of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race. We will use the opportunity of the WTC Logistics Tri-Race, to push the development of this crew so we are race fit for those demanding 4-5 weeks that are coming over the horizon.
This Leg we have 5 new crew. We have Peter rejoining us, who did Leg 1, he is heading up “Sounders” as the Watch Leader, and joining him on that watch are Chris, returning after doing Legs 1 and 3. Sophie and Tim are also on “Sounders”, joining the team for the first time. As we now have two Tims, new Tim has been given the boat name of “Gilly”. The final new crew member is David, who is returning again after doing Leg 3, he joins “Seahawks.” All are settling well and are already displaying good all round skills.
We are just about to go into the daily meeting, which is being opened with a lecturette on trim, covering some principles and practical application tips. The wind is beginning to die away and as I look at the forecast against reality it is 99% accurate, which means potentially we are about to enter a period of very light winds, till the early hours of Saturday morning, which is going to be disappointing and frustrating, but part of the highs and lows of ocean racing. We will see what the dice roll for us and how or if the fleet, most of which we can see, splits in the wind hole.
How do you catch a school of fish? With book worms clearly!
That's all for now,
Dave & “Number 1