Hello World!
After a good start at the pin end we are all off. The the only commotion was a Dutch voice calling out to a German boat that 'this is supposed to be a friendly race' so we can only suppose they were invading their space...again!
The days sail was with the spinnaker up and good initial progress was made. As night fell we dropped the kite and went with a poled out genoa. The wind was a litte flukey and variable during the night although warm but with a beautiful clear moon surrounded by an enormous halo.
Everyone seems to be slipping nicely into a routine and the watch system seems to be working well so far. At 10am the kite went back up and an average of 6-8 knots maintained through most of the day with an ENE wind of force 4...nice!
At around 1630 we were headed and the kite dropped so we are now white sail reaching with the SE wind just forward of the beam. As I write, we have just encountered a few dolphins and some whales, which we think are pilot whales, although certainly were too big for dolphins. However, opinion is divided as to the split in the numbers as they only surfaced twice before disappearing benath the waves once more.
What a great first 30 hours.
Piccolo signing off