Race 3 - Day 15
Skipper Report
15 November

So imagine you are on 70 foot speed machine racing through a pitch black night, waves spraying over you, you are hanging out with your watch mates having a fat old time and looking forward to getting below having a good sleep, when all of a sudden, POW! Something wet hits you in the face near your eye.

You immediately accuse your watch mates "Who threw something at me?!" No one owns up to anything so you better investigate, and low and behold, you have been ‘squided’. Luckily for round the worlder Lara Sword, who will forever now be known as ‘squid eye’, it didn’t ink itself.

We have been making good progress in miles and in time, moved the clocks forward a couple of hours today. There goes two hours I won’t ever get back, or maybe I will. It’s nice to know our time zone is closer to Australia than South Africa now.

We have been lucky with the boat moving nicely but it has all just changed. The light stuff we have so far avoided all leg has caught us now. We are still moving and I was hoping we had found a sneaky way through so fingers crossed this is just a little lunch time slow down.

All is well here on the good ship Da Nang – Viet Nam. Yesterday’s galley team of Emily Fripp (Legs 1-4) and Steve Cunningham (Legs 3-6) created party Saturday. This was to cover up the fact that it was tuna wraps for lunch, not everyone’s favourite, so we had chips, peanuts, cheesy nachos, and happy vibes. The entertainment was watching the bread rise and rise and rise. Ems had decided she didn’t like the recipe so changed it slightly so we ended up with the Elephant Man version of bread, but it all tasted great this morning at breakfast.

Using the time to dry out the boat now and check some minor bits and bobs. Eagle eye round the worlder Valerie Saint-Pierre noticed at dusk last night that we had some chafe on reef number two at the boom. That could have become a problem if we needed to put it in overnight, so I went out, changed it and retied it - no mean feat in the dark upside down and behind the boom unseen. So I just had a quick look at it now and believe it or not it is all okay. Well done Val for spotting a potential problem.

Anyway in this new time zone, lunch is nearly ready. Pops (round the worlder David Lees) is busy in there whipping up a new concoction, whatever it is I’m sure it will be great.

Big hugs to all friends and family.

Wendo