Hello World!
It's almost groundhog day on Kevin. We have not done any sail changes since we last blogged and even the course is still the same. What has changed is the distance to the finish and the time we expect and expected to be arriving on the River Foyle. The front of the fleet travels with a rather swift pace and the way we were going we would have arrived on 12 July. Not only would this clash with a very busy day in Northern Ireland, also there would not be space in the marina yet.
To avoid these complications, the Race Office have extended the race with approximately 225 nm of racing track, which brings us around exotic places like Rockall Shoal and the island of Saint Kilda, the latter a popular but hard to reach destination (due to the normal harsh weather) for sailors in the summer months. Both these places are on the same latitude west of the Scottish coast. The weather forecast for this extra day of sailing is rather interesting as there is a front about to pass over us, right at the moment we reach the most northern area of our detour. We are still a few days away from this so things might change, weather wise, as they normally do!
Meanwhile in the last 48 hours, life went on as usual, with the exception of Ben's birthday. This was celebrated with a complimentary special cake provided by Magnus, including rough ocean waves and a sailing yacht, all made out of edible ingredients. We have also spotted more whales, some a bit closer than they needed to be.
Next stop on the list is the Ocean Sprint, which we should commence in about an hour.
Have a great weekend, all out there, and we will catch up at the end of it.
Tot overmorgen,
Patrick, James and the Zhuhai Romantic Race Team