Race 1 - Day 30
Skipper Report
19 September

Lance Shepherd
Lance Shepherd
Team Liverpool 2018
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Whoooooompp!

Phwwooaaarr!

Woah Huwwwaaaaah!

These are the sounds of a spinnaker flogging, a squall coming in at pace and rain hitting the deck. At least according to our Italian Stallion, Pier-Francesco Rocci. Despite speaking more French than Italian (thanks to his lovely French wife) the man has lost nothing in his flair for conversation. You'd assume he was auditioning for Police Academy 26 with the sounds and hand gestures he uses.

Over the past few days, Pier has had lots to describe and the noises have kept on coming. The crew have been running sail change after sail change after sail change with a good mixture of spinnakers and white sails to keep our little pink boat floating along in the right direction (south damn it south!). With each spinnaker change though, comes the Liverpool 2018 wool red light district. I tell you what, there's something quite surreal about waking up at 3:00am to have a cheeky use of the heads only to see half of your crew dressed in only their pants and underwear, with wool string suggestively draped over their necks, staring back at you with dead eyes highlighted by our red cabin lights. It's images like these that haunt you for lifetimes.

However not everything can always go to plan when sailing. Our master seamstresses of Helen "The Huntress" Lane (she has many talents) and Mikey Kidwell (the man looks great whilst wielding a sewing machine) have done fantastic work keeping on top of our running repairs. Without them the boat would stop and myself and all the crew are 100% in their debt.

Sometimes instruments decide to play up and test our sailing skills - we have gone old school on Liverpool 2018 and decided that who needs wind instruments anyway! A compass and a bit of wool tied to the shrouds and jobs a good ‘un!

Similarly, sometimes the work on deck doesn't quite go to plan and we can all make mistakes. It's often the little mistakes that can lead to bigger consequences and one such incident occurred today. Big P (Paul Almond - he is definitely the bigger P after today) was working on a primary winch with the main spinnaker sheet when the boat heeled over drastically and overpowered the kite. Paul held on to the sheet for as long as possible but in the end had to let it go.

In doing so the sheet hit Paul's shin and has left him with the manliest looking laceration on the front of his leg (looks worse than it probably is). Like an absolute trooper Paul has taken the hit in his now slightly off beat stride and he was carefully attended to by Doctor (Graham) Dodge. Interestingly Dodge had a far gentler bedside manner with Big P than when helping out little Jonny Prosecco (Pillar).

Safety is my number one priority on our boat and the crew and I have all debriefed on the situation to ensure that we continue to sail well in this last stretch to Punta del Este.

With a little over 600nM (nautical miles) to go, the countdown is on. The excitement on board right now is electric and the one thing on everyone's lips is: what time does the party start at Nano's (Fernando Antia Bernardez) house?

So, remember to Think Pink and maybe if you stick your head out the window and blow in a south west direction, we might just get the last little puff of wind that we need to make it to Punta!

Ta

Lance