Well, hello everybody!
Hope you are doing well. It’s been another interesting day or so on board Zhuhai. The wind has finally come round behind us and with that the boat has levelled out and life has started to calm down a bit with the more agreeable angle and weather. Or so we thought...
This morning things took a bit of an unexpected turn as our Code 2 decided that with roughly 1,150 odd miles to go to the Finish Line, and the wind building to around 20 knots, that was far enough for it and it promptly $£at itself, much to everybody's surprise on the deck. What followed was a very short but savage wrestle with a soaking wet and freezing cold kite (no one was wearing foulies to add to this) and a rapid hoist of the Code 3. Cruelly though, the breeze that had so easily destroyed our kite then vanished leaving us floundering in little breeze with our heaviest kite up and facing the unenviable prospect of hoisting our lightest kite knowing that another gust like that could be under the next cloud. The damage looked pretty extensive, so we will have to assess it when we get into Seattle, but it is currently resting in pieces in its bag in the sail locker. All in all, not a great start to the day and it may well have put the brakes on any plans to catch the boats ahead of us as the Code 2 is one of the most useful kites we have with the weather set to be ideal for it in these closing stages as well!
Ho hum though, that is sailing, and the team worked fantastically to get the boat sailing again. Aside from that it has been a lovely day sailing really and with the under 1,000nm mark looming we are looking forward more and more to finishing this epic voyage.
As I’m writing this the breeze is picking up so wary of knackering another kite, I’m off!
All the best from the crew, Mike and myself.