Race 2 - Day 7
Skipper Report
22 September

Ian Wiggin
Ian Wiggin
Team Unicef
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Good morning race fans,

The last 24hrs have felt like Planet Earth in Ultra-Mega high definition. Nature has been abundant and we have had some really cool encounters. It is as if the birds, fish, plankton and dolphins have been trying to out compete each other. The harder we shout and cheer, the more they perform. The wildlife has really been working the cameras. I have lost track of how many times I have heard the word amazing in the last 24hrs. One comment from earlier "You know, seeing all of this (nature) - it's amazing- it really makes you want to do something to help."

Weather Forecast:

Warning for Unicef in areas 'bow' 'cockpit' and 'helms'

Chances of it raining flying fish - HIGH

Likelihood of avoiding being struck by flying fish: LOW

Hazards: Oily, scaly, bloody, and facially disfigured fish carcasses strewn everywhere.

Outlook for the following 24hrs: Hundreds of suicidal flying fish will probably decide to hurl themselves at you for no apparent reason. Stay indoors if possible. Avoid shining steaming light on spinnaker to illuminate the sail at all costs.

Over the last few days, there had been a few murmurs about personal hygiene. The nights have been sweaty and the grinding of winches plentiful. I forget how the saying goes. Something along the lines of "My flesh eating skin infection is your flesh eating skin infection??" I therefore declared that on deck showers were compulsory before sunset yesterday. Sophie 'queen of fun' was designated as shower patrol officer and took the role very seriously. I can confirm that a clean boat is definitely a happy boat indeed. The sea water showers were both refreshing and invigorating. The view was beautiful too. Much better than staring at a bathroom wall. We have also noticed a correlation between taking showers and an improvement in our 6 hourly race positions. I am sure there is sound logic in there somewhere. Off the back of this, it has been suggested that we should take showers everyday!

It has however, also been suggested that we spray tea tree oil up our noses to avoid being offended by certain deck shoes.

Unlike Lord of the Flies- onboard Unicef, nobody will be ostracized or in this case labelled as [insert name here] 'the smelly one'. Having said that; whilst typing this message I just smelled a strong odor of burning. Upon rushing to the galley to investigate, it turns out that the kettle may have been put on without any water in it.... My mind boggles. Maybe Piggy deserved it after all.

There is talk on board about playing our Stealth Mode soon. We heard skipper Josh 'not so stealthy' Stickland on the VHF radio the other night passing Qingdao. In his defense, the Saharan dust haze did weird things to the radio signals and we were able to hear them from over 40 nautical miles away. Either way, they have sailed brilliantly and have defended the scoring gate very well. It is looking unlikely that we will be able to get any race points at the Scoring Gate this time.

Here we go.

Ian and Mike.