Skipper Blog: Its James again Zhuhai's adaptably qualified person.
The past day has yet again been another rollercoaster with the wind following a fairly regular pattern, at about 1400 the breeze fills in and with the Spinnaker up we race away, making good speed at ten or so knots. Sunset comes and the breeze lingers on into the night, the glow of the moon here is so bright that there is no need for the steaming light to illuminate the kite. At about three in the morning it begins to tail off and by sun rise it has faded away and with it our precious boat speed. Left stranded until 1400 we struggle to make headway, the crew all anxiously watching our ETA on the computer as it jumps erratically according to our speed.
Life on board carries on as normal although we are starting to run out of a few things, the fruit bowl now consists of a few lemons, an onion and much to some of the crews dismay, the coco pops ran out this morning and for those of you who were on Leg 3 a familiar smell started to come from the portside forward bunks as we found some rather elderly eggs (they weren't anyway near as bad though, the ones on Leg 3 were something else). But maybe the hardest thing about being up near the tropics is the intense heat, its roasting on deck with some of the pastier crew putting almost an inch of suncream on before venturing out. Unusually for the Great Barrier Reef we haven’t seen too much wild life. Last night a bird, apparently a brown boobie, got stuck in our safety net and this morning we saw what we thought was a sea snake though it may well have been a piece of pipe, we're still debating it.
Long discussions about what people are looking forward to doing once they get in, mostly food, drink, shower (not always in that order), make the light winds even more frustrating. Sailing in the lighter airs certainly does require a lot of patience and calm luckily the wind is filling in and we are now on our way again, when there is wind here the sailing is glorious with the boat knifing through the dark waters. Somewhere out there under that water is the great barrier reef and with that a careful eye needs to be kept on the paper charts and the plotters to ensure that we are not straying into any danger or breaking any of the constraints placed on us by the Clipper Race. Having to go through pre-determined gates is also a challenge as with the wind behind us we have to gybe our way through them, it is excellent practice for the crew though who are really nailing them.
It’s cooling down now and I am technically still on watch so I need to hurry up typing but I'd like to say a massive thank you to all our Zhuhai supporters who have been sending us messages of encouragement. They have been read out in happy hour and are huge moral boost!
Best wishes from James, Nick and all the Zhuhai crew!