Race 1 - Day 26
Crew Diary - Race 1 Day 26: Liverpool to Punta del Este
15 September
Another quick note from somewhere south of the Equator. Looks like we are level with Santa Cruz in Brazil or Botswana in Africa (about 19.5 degrees South or so). Great day yesterday. The boat levelled out some more making life more comfortable on board. In the evening, the Southern Cross made an appearance whilst I was helming and I was able to place it between the mast and shrouds and use it as my aim point while driving. Pretty cool. As a bonus, we were able to see both the North and South Crosses and Crowns in the sky at the same time. Also found the elusive Pavo the Duck that I couldn't make out a few days ago. I was looking right at it, just didn't recognise it the first time round.
Speaking of Space, since I signed up for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race I've been joking (well, half-joking) that this adventure was just a practice run for my next adventure. I'm a big fan of NewSpace in general and SpaceX in particular. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX (or you may know him as the CEO of Tesla, but look up SpaceX and watch one of their reusable rockets land if you haven't seen it before. *That* is where the action is!) is trying to get the cost of traveling to Mars (yes Mars) down to the cost of a middle-income home in the US. He thinks a lot of people would sign up for it at that price point. I'm not sure how right he is about that… but I would! Well, maybe I would. Or at least I think it would be cool. And similar thinking to that is exactly how I'm now somewhere in the middle of the Southern Atlantic dodging squalls right now! Unfortunately, I'm guessing he is referring to the cost of a home in Southern California (so in other words expensive). However, I now have valuable information on what it is like to live in a small vessel with a lot of people over a long period of time. Maybe I can bargain for a discount! <smile!>. Ok, next instalment we can discuss relative difficulty (from crew perspective) of a trip from Liverpool to Airlie Beach versus, say Boca Chica, Texas, to Mars. ;-)