After our rendezvous with Qingdao, it seems the wind gods decided it was their turn to throw their hurdle at us.
It would only be fair after the wind instrument gods, fridge gods, water maker gods and medical gods have all had their turn. We have been in roughly 18 hours of the forecasted wind hole, which it seems was not as far north as predicted, enabling our competitors to gain some solid distance ahead of us. After three successive handovers of Dan and I pulling our hair out, some incredible track drawings on TimeZero, this morning the tide has finally turned.
I came on deck, full Lucozade sport bottle consumed, ready to move. Teen watch took it in their stride, rigging our code one ready to put an end to this bobbing. Soon we realised we were no longer downwind, but the wind was coming direct from Punta. We told Stuart to perform his best wind dance, which he dutifully did and low and behold we were sailing..10 knots...upwind...in the right direction!!! Hooray! Absolutely spiffing.
Vamos flipping Punta! I must say I do giggle reading the other blogs, all noting their difficulties staring at wind instruments! The good old wind on the face is our most accurate measure, and the crew are taking it in their stride to master the authentic helming. Yesterday we enjoyed a yummy bulgar wheat and beetroot lunch, and a chocolate caramel cake at supper thanks to Tanya and Zina keeping us fuelled. Caroline created a song, which her and Bartosz are choreographing for us to make a music video on our final journey in. Hopefully this wind stays, as Dan’s instruction at handover was ‘keep it going 10 knots in the right direction’, somewhat sarcastically as at that point we were doing 2 knots in the wrong direction – maybe with this new wind, and more of Stuart’s dances, I can fulfil his requests! Update: since writing this, and with a mammoth effort from the team on deck, and the favour of the wind gods, we just raised the Yankee 2, and are heading on a better course with good speed. Absolutely rattlin’ - get us to the Asado!
Laura, Dan and the UNICEF crew