Race 2 - Day 14
Skipper Report
18 October

Second breakfast.

This is for me one of the most enjoyable times of the day.

This morning, at 07:00 boat time, the off-coming watch is Starboard. They are soaked through from being on deck for the past four hours helming, trimming, and keeping lookout.

Port Watch has eaten half an hour before and have already had a deck handover, which took place below decks this morning as Greg Adams, the Starboard Watch Leader, briefed all crew in the saloon.

Starboard Watch is in good spirits after averaging twelve nautical miles every hour during their watch as we have a frontal system pushing us along nicely under white sails (no Spinnaker).

The smell of warm porridge, freshly brewed coffee, and melted butter on wholemeal toast is probably another factor. With the second breakfast, the off-coming watch have more time to enjoy it, and their mood can be gauged by the amount of verbal abuse given to the day's new Cooks. Today’s Bistro Chefs Graham Hill and April Rellis are not exempt from the barrage of “Is there any more coffee?”, “two slices of toast please – double butter”, “can I have jam on my porridge?” I like to join in as well to see how the galley crew perform under pressure; when they are about to fill the coffee pot from the kettle I ask for a tea.

There is no shortage of banter on this boat and we all enjoy the social aspect.

319 nautical miles to go now until Cape Town and we await news of how we have fared against GREAT Britain from the 0600 Sched.

That’s all,

Conall