Race 3 - Day 15
Skipper Report
07 November

Ian Wiggin
Ian Wiggin
Team Unicef
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So, being out here gives you time to reflect and also the opportunity for a bit of soul searching. There are no distractions and nowhere to hide from yourself. I am not alone in this. Looking at the birds around us; what are the Albatross wandering about?? Ha. GOOD MORNING! Sorry for the bad dad joke. Fear not, I am not getting emotional.

If Sir David Attenborough is reading this, then I would like you to clarify to your audience the idea of being 'on the wing'. All my life I was under the rather literal impression that Albatross flew constantly, day and night, night and day, until that special time once a year when they rubbed tail feathers on a remote island somewhere and finally got to sit down. This is not the case. Albatross are pretty lazy and we have seen lots taking a snooze on the water. Then, when they try and take off, there is a lot of running, leg splashing, and commotion.

Speaking of emotion- there was one occurrence a few days ago. I am afraid that I lost my zen, my chi, and my feng shui. I am not exactly sure what chakra is but I think I broke mine. If I had been drinking lemon and ginger tea the I would have spat it out. I heard rumours that, regarding a damaged boat item "It doesn't matter because I will not on the boat next leg!" ALARM BELLS -FLASHING LIGHTS -SIRENS- MORE ALARM BELLS. Luckily, I only heard this comment being mentioned second-hand in passing later that day. I was shocked. I was taken aback. I was like the 13-year-old version of myself at a school disco; not having a clue what to do. Unicef is our home, our pride, our joy and our safety. I managed to conceal my frustration, but it has been niggling at me ever since. I shall not be investigating the matter and I am hoping that it was a very poor attempt at a joke.

Apologies to our loyal fans. Sorry if our Stealth Mode caused you any anguish or stress. We are still here for you. With less than 500nm to the finish we thought it worthwhile to play our Stealth Mode option. I know that our invisibility will have been hard on many of you. Before leaving Unicef in Punta Del Este, Jayne found time to handwrite our scheds pages for this race. Complete with a motivational quote at the bottom of each six hour fleet position update, one such comment today reads "Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence."

So in summary, we treat Unicef with massive respect and if surfing down a monster wave, it is permissible to say "drive it like you stole it." Although, I like to say drive it like you found it, with the keys in, and you didn't realise it had an owner, and the event coincided with your birthday. Interesting fact of the day- most boats don't even have keys! On that bombshell, it is now 0300UTC, the sun is thinking about rising. I am off to rest my Chakra. Goodnight.

Here we go,

Ian and Mike