Race 3 - Day 14
Skipper Report
14 November

We are holding onto our hats over here - after what feels like an eternity of wind holes or just skirting around wind holes, we have wind ... and it's coming from behind us. Last night was a busy one; as the wind started to build we gradually reduced sail – Huwahuwaii (our lightweight spinnaker) gave way to Ariel (our mediumweight spinnaker) who gave way to Murphy (our heavyweight spinnaker).

There have been some spectacular speeds with several of the crew joining the surf brigade, led by Mr George ‘speed demon’ Bullard who scored the first 20 knots of the day. By the time we reach Freo I think we will have all developed new stretch marks on our cheeks; they just aren't wide enough for the big smiles that come alongside "16, 17, 18, 19 - 20.3 yeeeeha!".

A couple of thanks are needed today. Thanks to our dear Guylaine and Laurent who left us some gorgeous French chocolates in Cape Town - the pick me up was warmly welcomed after Day 6 of wind hole dodging.

Thanks to the Liverpool 2018 poet and his/her limerick - I'll get my lot to send you over one in return...

Thanks to all our friends and family who email us news from home - it really gets us through the hard times aka ‘sloshing around moving nowhere’ times' or 'are we really not even half way there?’ reality checks.

And finally, to the best sail repair team in the entire world (not biased or anything) Lizzie Howe and Phil Whittemore who painstakingly jump straight onto every spinnaker that comes down the hatch and get to work on it, night or day, with no complaints at all. In fact, they say they enjoy it, although I just can't bring myself to believe them having failed miserably to ever get along with a sewing machine myself. These guys are team players down to the bone.

Hoping the rest of the fleet also gets their share of westerlies very soon and we all start speeding along to Australia.

Sailing with style - Nik