The wildlife over the past couple of days as we passed the bottom of the grand banks has been incredible, with huge pods of dolphins joining us for 30mins or more around dinner, a wide range of sea birds, and even a whale passing between us and Our Isles and Oceans when we were only a couple of miles apart. The most spectacular displays always seem to occur just as we are about to conduct a sail change, often putting a hold on the change while everyone gets distracted by the wildlife.
Now we have split as we take different strategies. We struggled to keep up with the two closest boats yesterday night and have now headed east to join Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam in the southern pack changing places with Zhuhai and Perseverance. As before time will tell who has made the correct choice as the wind is forecast to get lighter when the weather front that has been following us finally catches up. To quote Simon the fleet meteorologist from yesterday's update “The next 24-36 hours will be interesting, as you almost get caught by the front.” Which means that there will be a lot of head scratching and tea/coffee consumed as skippers and AQP’s across the fleet try and make the best choices in the unstable winds.
Dan, Laura and the wildlife enjoying crew