Good morning,
We’ve had a lovely evening with stars on full show and now a morning of sunshine. Days without cloud cover are rare but very much appreciated here in the North Pacific. A few layers have been shed and kit is slung around the deck in an attempt to get at least one layer dry again. Hatches are open so the constant shower of condensation down below is gradually easing off. The mood on deck is wonderful as we stock up on our vitamin D stores.
We’ve just about reached the halfway point in mileage for Race 10 as I write this blog. With longer races such as this one if you start thinking about how long you’ve been out here or how long is left to go you tend to find yourself going a bit crazy. So, although halfway feels like an achievement, we can’t stop to dwell on it.
As for the forecast, we’re currently desperately trying to run away from a wind hole before we inevitably run into another one. After that, we’re faced with the big low pressure that everyone’s talking about where I don’t think we’ll be blessed with seeing this yellow thing in the sky. In tactics talk, the northern route we spent hours deciphering over earlier in the race didn’t pay off so we’re all working very hard to keep boat speed as high as we can through the ever-changing weather systems to keep pushing for better results.
Life on board continues as normal, on deck the focus is on helming and trimming and down below the focus is on getting warm again. Galley watch becomes more important and is more appreciated than ever as watches come below deck to be handed a bowl of warm food. Our Yankee 1 is repaired and back in action, a massive thank you to Vasi who did an amazing repair in good time. The Code 3 has been triaged and is now in the operating room as repairs begin in an attempt to have it back before we reach Seattle.
In other big news, we still have fresh fruit (does it sill class as fresh after 17 days?) and we had a little whale show at our midday meeting today.
Ella, Hannah and the Washington, DC crew.