Hello World
How are you all? I hope you’re well!
As we do one blog in two days, I thought it would be smart to start a day earlier, not to have to dig in the grey mass too much and sort out what we have done in the blur of events that keeps us moving in the right direction…
Today, Saturday, we are sailing on our own. Last night we split from the fleet who sought the lower course to find the Gulf Stream for a bit to gain some speed. We, Watch Leaders Kent and Chris, along with our TimeZero guru Ben, have opted for the shortest rhumb line, and more wind strategy. The first schedules this morning looked good and we were still placed as number 1 by the Race Viewer, hopefully we can consolidate this position.
The weather does not fit into the fact that we are rapidly heading north, the navstation temperature still tops 29 degrees Celsius and outside it is not much cooler. Only at night does it cool down properly which makes for a good night’s rest for the off watch.
Yesterday gave us an abundance of wildlife with a pod of orcas (killer whales) closely passing behind the boat, several sightings of whales both near and far, plus fast moving dolphins, jumping past the boat to gather at the bow and play in the pressure of the bow wave. Last night it seemed that we were powered forward by fairy dust as bioluminescent algae was left trailing in our wake. Today’s lunch was provided by Jessica, our Zhuhai ambassador on this trip, in the form of fried rice, the best I have ever tasted :-)
Hello again, welcome to the resumption of the 48 hour period this blog combines...
Hello it’s the AQP here, it seems like I completely missed the killer whales yesterday! Well today we have spent sailing in mostly the wrong direction, with the boats down south pulling off some impressive speeds, and we thought we might be in a fair amount of trouble. Luckily the wind has come through for us and we're now making good speed in the direction we actually want to go in, which in terms of sailing is a blinding success as you'd be surprised how little you get to do it (there’s a reason the wind is free..!)
Most recently a whole bag of peanut M&Ms spilled and for about five or so minutes the deck became like the board game ‘Hungry Hippos’ with crew members furiously gathering them back up, no doubt we'll find heaps of them smashed into the floor come the sunrise! So yeah, right now life is good on board CV28 Zhuhai.