Another eventful day! Aren't they all...!

It began with a very poignant ceremony when Chris Serata scattered his father's ashes at sea.He made a very heartfelt speech which left all of the crew deeply moved.Being out in the middle of a vast ocean is enough to make one think of one's own insignificance in the great scheme of things, but Chris also spoke strongly about how one individual can make a difference.

Robert East got his hands on the sextant and had a crack at first sunlight. Conditions were not easy with rough seas, a strong breeze and a lot of cloud cover, but he managed to get a line of position within 3nm of our GPS position which is about as good as anybody can do in those circumstances! At least we know that we will be able to find our way home with Robert's help if the electronics fail!

The next event of the day was the sighting of a small cruising yacht, the Tedje, close to starboard. She seemed to be making a hard time of the heavy weather and we were glad to be on a bigger, faster boat!

A couple of cakes were successfully baked in the galley during the day, along with some bread, which cheered everybody up!

During the late afternoon we gybed to make ‘Virtual Mark Keitch’ and saw Punta Del Este about two miles away. Just before sunset, we gybed again and passed close to port of the magnificent full rigged sailing ship Gloria just as the sun was setting!

Around midnight we began the Ocean Sprint part of the race in a rising gale and big seas. I’m not quite sure how we are comparing with the other boats but we have certainly been getting some big numbers on the log! At 2300 UTC it was noted in the logbook that David Fortune had topped out at 22.5 knots in a gust of wind reaching over 45 knots. Within an hour I had brought the top speed to 25.2 knots and just recently Robbie Worthington got 25.4 knots in a 50 knot gust of wind! Looking forward to hearing how this compares with the rest of the fleet. Our average over 12 hours has been 12 knots, which I think is quite reasonable. Congratulations to David and Robbie for being star helmsmen in some pretty tough conditions.

Wind is expected to be moderate during the day and although it would be good to get a break from this high intensity surfing. I am sure we will miss it when it is gone!

Cheers

Nick