Today was similar to the day before really; moderate to light downwind sailing with the sun/stars in full force. It's really beautiful out here - and such a treat to actually have some wind too. It's not going to last - there is a big blue patch on our forecast coming up - so we are savouring every last bit of it.

As I write this, we are about two miles away from crossing the Scoring Gate after Chris. Dale continued heading east as the wind backed, so it will be interesting to see if he actually goes for the gate or not.

The question which I imagine is in all our minds - will the race restart again? Wind holes are pretty good at compressing the fleet, and I wonder if we will all bunch up and start over. It certainly looks that way - so we are happy we have picked up a few points in case our positioning falls.

Life otherwise has been lovely. Lots of learning and training going on onboard - making sure everyone feels comfortable with our most exercised evolutions of this leg which are peels (hoisting one spinnaker and then dropping the other) and gybes (turning the boat downwind).

Our lunchtime meeting turned into a big debate ... there are definitely 19 people with strong opinions onboard! This time discussions were; whether to change the wake-up times for the watches now we don't have to put so many layers on, how to reduce the amount of kitchen towel we use to help the environment, and when to get out the new snack rations - three things that were clearly very important to everyone today!

Hopefully that gives you an insight into our simple life here. So special to not have to worry about bills, and the traffic in the morning, and all the other gripes that encompass our lives back home. Real freedom.

Sailing with style - Nik

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