RACE 11 - DAY 24 SKIPPER REPORT

In my head

Well what a day. Apart from being hot hot hot, today has been a good day. I slept well last night after the stress I always place myself under throughout the race. There was a small relief to cross the first Mandatory Finish Gate. It may or may not be the finish line, of that I'm uncertain but nevertheless we certainly placed well. Word on the street is that we did very well indeed. I slept again for a couple of hours today. All the pieces have been lined up. As a giant game of chess, we have a checkmate plan.

Having placed the trap we sit back and watch how it pans out. The turmoil of where to take our starboard tack. How to avoid the worst of the wind holes. Where they are likely to be. How we are most likely to spend most of the time in positive current whilst placing ourselves in the best wind directions. When will the tack that takes us to where we want to go move us into negative current or less pressure?

The lines are now all drawn as we wait. Wait. Wait trimming the sails, an inch here and there. The helms focus on keeping to their targets. We see if our plan unfolds quite the way we would like. We are now working from a forecast almost 24 hours old so I'm eagerly awaiting the next one. Will it support the plan or will it remove the options we have positioned ourselves to rely on. Will it move its piece to our expectations or play a different move or knock the table over completely leaving us to start all over again.

I await with baited breath to see our outcome. Unlike last night. Tonight I may not be so well rested as I remain poised to react to a clever opposition that's full of surprises. This time and for this line we hope it plays out well. As I write, I can already suggest that our upward trending wind, over the past hour, has returned back to numbers that don't work for us. Will the new forecast support our tactical play or the new conditions we are experiencing. This wind hole shouldn't be here and our speed needs to be more right now.

It’s going to be a long night. A long night in my head.

Meanwhile outside of the ageing rusty cogs that grind, albeit rather slowly sometimes, in my head, we have a good atmosphere onboard. We sense an end to our latest journey, after the quick turn around in San Francisco, following our repairs in Tokyo and solo passage across the Pacific, then our co victualler Di needing to be medivaced from the boat and being rushed for eye surgery. The tenacity of a very hardworking and a learning team.

I think everyone’s ready now to decompress, take a breath and shape up for a new race. One where we can start with the fleet and utilise hard work and sailing tactics. Removing terms like chance, luck and should from our equation. Yes I'm ready for a beer, thank you very much.

Di sent us an update to all onboard explaining that she has had her operation and believes it will be a success. She plans to visit us in Bermuda when she can.

Doeke has been doing some awesome helming as has Frankie. They are both hugely talented which really comes to the fore in very heavy winds, and as everyone has found out, very light winds too.

Jody, leader on Red watch, has been great at his position as always.

Bridget and Bertrand, two of our ol.., I mean more experienced members of the crew, have been showing up the youngsters on the pedestals, grinding the winches for the spinnaker.

Lisa has been learning to helm all the way across the Pacific. She's really improved and is one of our best now.

Grant joined us in San Francisco, he is so hard working, always putting his effort in. He has picked everything up so fast and seems like he’s been with us for a lot longer.

I know I haven't mentioned everyone here, but all are working so well and it’s a really nice group of people to be sailing with.