Race 2 - Day 14
Skipper Report
18 October

When life becomes a little easier on board and things aren't going wrong and the boat is sailing quickly, one of the hardest questions I find myself asking is, do I blog in the morning or evening?

Now, I've never been much of a social media specialist, so this whole blogging thing hasn't particularly come naturally to me but it is part of the job and a new skill to walk away with.

This is the penultimate day, or even last full day sailing on this leg, and we find ourselves sitting in tenth place rather than third crossing the line in Leg 1. Have I enjoyed this leg any less? Well, the answer to that is no.

The sailing has been phenomenal, touching windspeeds of just below 60 knots and boat speeds in their mid-twenties. Life in the Southern Atlantic is cold, yet exciting, and has given me some of the best sailing conditions I have experienced to date. With just over 300 nautical miles to go, we are looking at a Thursday afternoon finish, providing everything stays the same and the weather conditions don't change too much.

The crew on board have been drama free which makes a Skipper’s life easier. If there are dramas, the role as Skipper has to be shared with the role of someone like Jeremy Kyle and that’s just no fun. There has been a lot of laughs and light-hearted humour thrown around the boat since day one on this leg and hasn't left since.

Yesterday we celebrated John Charles’ birthday and the Galley is still covered in banners, balloons, and remnants of cake the chuckle brothers knocked up yesterday. The chuckle brothers are none other than the Galley duo Phil Blakey and John Buckman, to me to you. Watching these two work around the Galley together is as good as watching a comedy sketch on TV. It even brings the crowds in earlier for lunch and dinner, and has been dubbed as the boats light entertainment.

Thanks to Tracey Charles, John got all his pressies and even shared the luxury chocolate box with the rest of the crew. On a boat you take much more time to think about the simple things when they happen, like for instance, what defines a luxury chocolate box over a regular chocolate box. We determined that if at least one type of chocolate is wrapped in a shiny foil wrapper, it must have come from a luxury chocolate box.

I hope Greenings and Liverpool 2018 can source out the best karaoke bar given their extra time in port, and we can have a repeat of our open mic night sessions and karaoke mix which Harry and Henry seemed to always be around for.

See you soon Cape Town!!!

Andy and the GREAT Britain Team