To say it is hot here at the moment is an understatement. We are all melting, sleep is almost impossible to find except for the last few hours of night when it is finally cool enough to sleep! Despite having only one working head (loo) on board there are no queues as no one can drink enough water to keep up with the sweating and need the loo too! its bad! To top it all off we have been struggling with wind (not only from the chic peas in the chilli) but with a lack of it to drive the boat. This has made traversing the 'Windward Passage' between Haiti and Cuba a slow process. We did see lad (Haiti) in the distance and last night passed the island of Inagua last night where we could see the port of Matthew Town all lit up. We did wonder if they had a bar open and if anyone would notice if we went for beers. We thought they might so slowly we sailed past! At this rate we may never get to Jersey and may have to go straight to manhattan! Well lets hope it does not come to that!
We did have some excitement yesterday when we were 'buzzed' by a US Coastguard Helecopter. It was flying in the distance then he must have seen us and came to investigate. They did two close circles of us before calling us on the VHF radio. They basically wanted to check we were who we were and did we need anything. They were impressed we were a RTW Racing yacht, they wished us good luck with the race, said they would be in the area for a few hours if we needed anything and flew off, only to call back saying we were dragging something behind the boat that could be slowing the boat down. It was funny for skip to reply saying it was our fishing gear!! they laughed! hardcore racers to the end eh!!
The general wildlife here has been dissapointing, one whale from a distance has been it. The sea is the most beautiful blue colour i've ever seen and you can (when the boat is not moving) see the sunbeams penetrating quite deep, a bit enchanting really. You can imagine how storeys of mermaids and sirens were formed by sailors. It does look like hair almost and seems to beckon you in. (though after the other days encounter I am in no hurry to be jumping in the sea again!)
From a race point of view we are around mid table (up and down) so who knows how it will all pan out, All we can do is try our best. And we DO! Even when sunshine turns to rain as it just has, chucking it down! cooling refreshment for us to be honest and OB took the opportunity to have a rain shower, all good until he got soap in his eyes! bless him!! still we raced on though, not losing any speed until the rain stopped and took the wind with it leaving us to drift and drip dry for the last hour of our watch!
Joy!
Well to my bunk I must go now for my 6 hour off watch (1 hour gone already on lunch) we are off for the noon till 1800 hrs then night watch 1800 -2200 and 0200- 0600 tonight and I have mother watch in 3 days I cant wait! Well I doubt I will be sleeping as it is so hot I am literally forming puddles (as is everyone) wherever we are! Thank god for my Ipod and 32GB of awesome tunes to keep me occupied! I just hope it is cool enough by 10pm to sleep then or I will be a grumpy James!
We did have some excitement yesterday when we were 'buzzed' by a US Coastguard Helecopter. It was flying in the distance then he must have seen us and came to investigate. They did two close circles of us before calling us on the VHF radio. They basically wanted to check we were who we were and did we need anything. They were impressed we were a RTW Racing yacht, they wished us good luck with the race, said they would be in the area for a few hours if we needed anything and flew off, only to call back saying we were dragging something behind the boat that could be slowing the boat down. It was funny for skip to reply saying it was our fishing gear!! they laughed! hardcore racers to the end eh!!
The general wildlife here has been dissapointing, one whale from a distance has been it. The sea is the most beautiful blue colour i've ever seen and you can (when the boat is not moving) see the sunbeams penetrating quite deep, a bit enchanting really. You can imagine how storeys of mermaids and sirens were formed by sailors. It does look like hair almost and seems to beckon you in. (though after the other days encounter I am in no hurry to be jumping in the sea again!)
From a race point of view we are around mid table (up and down) so who knows how it will all pan out, All we can do is try our best. And we DO! Even when sunshine turns to rain as it just has, chucking it down! cooling refreshment for us to be honest and OB took the opportunity to have a rain shower, all good until he got soap in his eyes! bless him!! still we raced on though, not losing any speed until the rain stopped and took the wind with it leaving us to drift and drip dry for the last hour of our watch!
Joy!
Well to my bunk I must go now for my 6 hour off watch (1 hour gone already on lunch) we are off for the noon till 1800 hrs then night watch 1800 -2200 and 0200- 0600 tonight and I have mother watch in 3 days I cant wait! Well I doubt I will be sleeping as it is so hot I am literally forming puddles (as is everyone) wherever we are! Thank god for my Ipod and 32GB of awesome tunes to keep me occupied! I just hope it is cool enough by 10pm to sleep then or I will be a grumpy James!
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