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Idea of London - Message From the Crew guest writer



VQ Ocean Race Team update. Almac here. It's been an eventful few days already! Go off to slow start hampered by low winds on first eve driving us further south than we wished.Caught up somewhat and then ran into a big squall on second night which was really testing - all hands on deck in pitch black to bring down the kite with boat racing along at 24 knots just on mainsail - sheet rain and crashing waves made for a sleepless wet night for all.

 Generator packed up so no cooked food nor hot coffee - tepid boil in the bag from the hot water tap....conversation already dominated by ideal menus for once we step off the boat. Trying our ingenuity for concocting menus - today we started with some hummus from tinned chickpeas - followed by some Tom Ka warm (and seriously spicy) noodle soup with Lucas adding another type of hot sauce or chili or ginger to give it "an edge" - this follows on from his Tinned calamari with hot sauce dish earlier - not the sort of breath you want to bunk up with. Highlight today was that with a lull in the wind we got the rod out and hooked an 8lb Mahi mahi (that'll be ME actually) - Sashimi for all!!! at least we might get prize for most sophisticated dining experience of the ARC...Ben lost another fish and spent rest of the afternoon mumbling "maybe i didnt apply enough pressure" - the competitive streak never ends...speaking of which we kicked off backgammon league.

Ed in the lead having hustled ludo and myself and looks set for free beers for entirety of St Lucia stay. All in good spirits with calm day used by Marc and Clint to scale up mainsail and repair the rip - pretty impressive in a decent swell with it flapping around. Lot of grunting to be heard on deck as crew tries to impress each other with press up challenges. Music especially while sailing at night has been comforting and Ig's beatbox become most important item to be charged on daily basis and his obscure choice of electric swing jazz has won us over - or maybe we are still too polite to each other still...Ru looking more beaten by the hour as he attempts War and Peace (only 900 pages to go), Tom has hidden his perudo set having been whipped at his own game. Alice keeping troops in good spirits - not sure which the crew appreciated more - her cleaning the heads or stripping down to her bikini... she was the first to volunteer getting into the harness - yes the innuendo has kicked off already - to go up the mast and repair sheet so already making boys look bad on the bravado front. She and Lucas have become our Breeze Hunters on quiet days like today.  

Despite the difficulty getting used to 3 hour shifts over night everyone in good spirits and we are still in this race with all to play for. Been seeing shooting stars and with last night's clear run and Lucas's star app got a clear view of Jupiter and the space station. We are starting to smell (some more than others). 

Signing off with love to all family and friends following us from all here



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