Good morning all, and greetings from the good ship PSP Logistics,
Happy Independence Day to all of our cousins from south of the border! Another big day of celebrations is planned to mark the occasion, with americana galore, indoor fireworks - well, confetti shooters! - and more fun and laughter. That comes after what seems like a month of celebrations, with birthdays for pretty much the whole crew, Canada Day (the real Independence Day, apparently), re-living our Hunt for Red October moment as we crossed the Laurentian Abyssal, and, of course, the crossing of our circumnavigation line. Every day seems to have been Sunday funday, and our ministry of laughs (aka Jess and Lisa, ably assisted from on shore by Jonesy and Trevor, and from all of our galley watchers who have magnificently risen to each occasion) have done an incredible job, producing pirate costumes, tutus, cold (and sometimes not so cold) chocolate bars, tiaras, red cakes and, of course, hats of every possible description. The weight police, making sure we keep the boat light and fast, might not have been concentrating when all of this was smuggled aboard!!
But if you think that all of this celebrating has been at the expense of the racing, think again. I know I have said it repeatedly in these blogs, but I am incredibly proud of the culture we have built in our team, that has survived and grown since those days leaving Portsmouth ten months ago, as the crew has changed with each new batch of leggers bringing their own unique character. We may not be the fastest boat in the fleet at the moment - some rather average decision making, and inconsistent boat speed has seen to that - but we are all pushing our own personal boundaries all the time. We really do care about how we are doing, and there is never an acceptance that, even when things aren't going our way, we cannot try our hardest, and that we cannot do better in the next evolution, that we cannot identify that bird or dolphin, or that we aren't good enough to helm at the moment. We get back up off the canvas after each 6 hourly position report and its dose of bad news, dust ourselves off, tell a joke and keep on battling. You can't always get the balance perfect, but I know we will all be looking back knowing we will have wrung everything we possibly could out of the experience.
It is worth at this point giving a quick shout out to Frank, Jo and everyone at our sponsors PSP Logistics. They got what we were trying to achieve as a team and have supported us incredibly all round the world with presence and their incredible generosity. I look forward to thanking them personally when we get back to Portsmouth.
Anyway, enough of the soppy stuff. On to what you have all been soldiering through these endless paragraphs waiting for...the wildlife bingo!! A pair of storm petrels have been hot on our heels for most of the day, and we saw a Barolo shearwater with its distinctive white collar in the afternoon. The evening's usual spectacular sunset was interrupted by a pod of six pilot whales and a media prize winning display of leaping in perfect harmony by a mother and baby dolphin. Not a bad haul.
Back to the racing. We still have a long way to go – 1,400 odd miles to be roughly exact - and at least one wind hole to come. We have positioned ourselves where hopefully the current will give us more of a help than the boats to the north, so there is plenty of time for a comeback.
On on!!
Mike, Lottie, the Barolo shearwater and the still pushing on crew of PSP Logistics