Race 1 - Day 30
Crew Diary - Race 1 Day 30: Liverpool to Punta del Este
19 September

Ian Munford
Ian Munford
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So my pedigree chums – we have the finish line in sight and who would believe that after racing 6500nM there is very little distance between all the yachts. All the teams are gunning for the line and like the GREAT Britain crew, will be getting every ounce of speed out of their charges. Keep watching the race viewer and expect an exciting finish. In the words of Mr Trent D'Arby, "It ain't over till its over"...!

As we are on the final hoorah, its hard to think of anything useful/entertaining to write about that hasn't already been scribed by my team mates. As such I'm going to indulge myself and use this blog to highlight some of the key memories/thoughts that I'll keep going forward..

The first of these are my team mates. Over the last few blogs I described some of the characters in the GREAT Britain team and boy what a team. In my humble opinion you won't find a better melting pot of talented, competitive, diverse individuals in any walk of normal life. The fact that we are all here onboard this yacht is testament to that. We set out from Liverpool as relative strangers but led by the ever present Andy and through sharing both adversity and good times, we end with much stronger bonds between us.

The next thing I want to highlight is the everchanging sea scape. Someone pointed out to me that I'd be completely bored of the monotonous view of waves by the first week.. Not so...the sea has something around every corner whether that's a breaching whale, a sunrise, a sunset, a wave breaking off our stern, another devil's spawn - squall (what are they actually good for!) - the big horizons, the varying shades of blue etc. Even though we get a tad excited when we spot another ship, I have never been bored of looking across the sea and the horizon – there's always something going on.

We also need to mention our yacht, home and safe haven SS GREAT Britain (she has a proper unofficial name but I'll let Andy divulge that). She definitely bites the less vigilant sailor and things have gone awry from time to time (see previous blogs) - but that's sailing. When all is said and done, she has seen us safely half way round the world through some big storms and big waves. Only yesterday as we were charging through the South Atlantic she topped a speed of 21.6kts. It looked and sounded great and with the crew cheering on deck we instantly forgot the challenges she's presented us and remembered how racey she can be...

This ship and the future crews of Team GREAT Britain will generate a load more race experiences and individual memories, each one unique to the setting and those involved. I, for one, am glad I was able to participate in this part of the journey and look forward to cheering Andy and the team onwards and upwards. Go team GREAT!

Keep the faith.

Ian