Good morning from a chilly Dare To Lead,
Shortly after we last spoke, we had a family of orcas passing the boat which was an exciting occasion! Even though I've seen quite a lot of orca action working up in Canada and Alaska, it's always impressive how big the adult fins are and how they glide through the swell like a sharp knife. Most of the crew hadn't seen orcas before, so even though it was very brief it was a good moment. Hopefully we see them again.
The benefits of being so far north is not only hopefully a good sailing angle across to Oban but some nice wildlife, interesting bird life appearing too. Well, I hope we can go east across to Oban soon otherwise, as I joked to the crew, we might take crew member Kevin back north to Svalbard at this rate where he was just on holiday before joining for Leg 8. I've been to Svalbard and a few cold pints and some sport in Oban sounds more inviting right now!
We have made good progress the last day or so but are starting to feel the wind dropping going into the edge of this high-pressure system. The crew is helming well keeping the boat moving nicely, and ideal conditions to rotate through all crew giving the less experienced crew good time at the helm and some coaching. Everyone has done great in this race so far and even our ambassador, Olwami who has avoided it previously has had a few good runs on the helm.
Sleeping has become a lot easier and more inviting with this coldness. It's funny that when it's extremely hot you almost prefer being on watch outside in the breeze and fresh air but when it's cold you just want to jump in your sleeping bag and it's hard to get out of bed with the wake-up call. People are starting to wear gloves and all layers will be required soon.
The fleet is still split quite openly with different routing and every daily weather forecast is waited for in anticipation. I wouldn't want to be the person in charge of the ETAs into Oban for this one. Sorry, sorry, Dale!
Lots of Stealth left, an important Ocean Sprint and a cracker finish into Oban so stay tuned and keep following the Race Viewer.
Bye for now,
Ryan, Charlie, and crew