Race 2 - Day 3
Skipper Report
18 September

Quite a bit of traffic this morning.

One of the great things about technology is the amount of information we have immediately available about all the ships around us. Our primary source of information is the AIS (Automatic Identification System). Right now the AIS tells me that the 228m long tanker, Lake Trout, is about to pass a mile ahead of us in 25 minutes. She is bound for Malta. Next closest is our old nemesis, GoToBermuda. Wavy and his team have ended up 5 nautical miles abeam of us after 24 hours of close racing, involving several gybes during the night.

As I write this, I see that the Lake Trout has altered course to starboard to avoid us, GoToBermuda, and another approaching tanker, the Sichem Manila. Sichem Manila is en route to the Canary Islands and will pass about 2 nautical miles away from us. Further away is an even bigger cargo ship, the 288 m long Genco Claudius, bound for Nouadhibou, in Mauritania. 20 miles ahead of us is the MSC Rosario, bound for Las Palmas.

GoToBermuda first showed up on our AIS this time yesterday, and since then we have been in constant sight of each other. Wavy and I had a chat on the radio yesterday morning, so it was great to be able to pass on some news about one of our competitors to my team.

It is with sadness that I also have to mention the passing of Mateo yesterday. Mateo was a small brown bird who spent a few hours onboard with us. We are not certain, but he appeared to be a Willow Warbler. Unfortunately, after a few hours onboard, he attempted to swim for the shores of Morocco. Willow Warblers are not adapted to swimming.

There were some comments onboard about Darwin's theories of survival of the fittest, and how it was appropriate that the Willow Warbler bloodline won't be impacted by an individual of a land based species that doesn't know how to navigate at sea. I will leave the reader to imagine where that conversation ended up… but it did involve some of the crew becoming rather philosophical…

The weather remains pleasant, although we could do with some more breeze.

In other news from onboard Zhuhai, Harriet McDonald has been challenged to keep quiet for two hours. The bet is that Nassor will catch a fish before Harriet can keep quiet for that long… and the concern is that she will try to make up for lost time afterwards.

Otherwise, all good onboard Zhuhai.

Cheers,

Nick