Our first race of this race is over! I’m writing this as we just crossed the Scoring Gate in first place; our third Scoring Gate win in the last four aces. The crew sailed fantastically to achieve this, and it just goes to show the focus and dedication that they have to racing this boat. Amazing!
Our champagne sailing though, I feel, is over, as we look at the synoptic spaghetti in front of us and try to figure which wind hole we’d rather sit in. One to the north, one to the east, or one just straight down the middle? If one thing’s certain, it’s that there’ll be a lot of position changes between here and Oban. Another reason to be pleased with points in the bag.
Another happiness gracing the vessel of Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam is that we’ve finally headed north. After a long time just heading east, we’re expecting temperatures to hopefully decrease as we continue scaling the latitudes, creating a more liveable and comfortable environment down below. It has felt like summer though! We’ve barely had a splash of rain so far, and the sun has been beaming down on us. Again, I’m sure this’ll change but it’s nice for the moment.
Continuing this blog in the evening, we’re now in the formidable company of UNICEF, Perseverance and Zhuhai. Everyone has their foot to the floor now, with averages in the 12’s and 13’s, so we shall see how this plays out tomorrow morning.
On the helming honourable mentions, Eric has just made me very happy and has seamlessly taken up the helming mantle from Paddy with absolutely no difference in performance. This might not seem to be very significant, but the conditions are playful to say the least and clean helm changes are not always a given, especially with a kite up. Good job to both of them.