It has been a busy few days on UNICEF. Having a 30-mile gap between us and the pack was tough, and we have worked hard to close it in to now just 14-20 miles to the boats ahead. We have had some exciting weather, as a low pressure rolled over the top of us last night, bringing 30-40 knots of wind and 5-6 metre swells. It was exciting to be getting the first taste of low-pressure systems in the North Pacific: wet, wild and windy.
Morale is great on board, as helms become ever excited at the prospect of hitting 20 knots GPS speed on the surfs. Today the wind will calm down as the low-pressure tracks NE, leaving behind a messy sea state for us to navigate. The next few days could be interesting fleet wise, with a large north/south split and a high pressure set to dominate the racetrack, it could be yet another wind hole drift-a-thon before we manage to head east. Shout out goes to Tom Newsom, who gave us a “Cloud appreciation society cloud selector wheel”, we had fun identifying the voluptuous Volutus clouds around us yesterday, and Dan used it as a fidget spinner when deliberating over sail plans, so thank you Mr. Newsom for enriching our cloud appreciation.
Laura, Dan and UNICEF