29th November Skippers blog.
2-5am Sitting in moonlight, alone, hand steering doing 6-7 knots on a shimmering, glassy ocean with the moonlight on the rolling waves; the spinny up in 15 knots of wind ... life is great and can't get any better.! True sense of freedom and no worries as Thin Lizzy bashes out "Whisky in the Jar" in my ear. 7 day spinny run and still going. Overall dress is a pair of board shorts and a tee shirt at night only.
I definitely realise that Pops would be over himself if he was here at this moment, so I nod to the stars wish him the best as I know he would be grinning ear to ear as I am. Although the monetary cost of doing this crosses my mind. I gave up my job, my flat, my car, my skiff to do this. I could be on a round the world 7 star cruise (with regular showers) with chandlery costs alone but nothing can beat this in the world.
Since the 7.30am daily drop, re-pack, check chaffing and re-launch I was awoken by Will or Neil (boat's rule is you pick the tune for wake up and play it on full blast! I have taken my morning sights with the sextant and filled the solar shower ready for our crew showers. Moral is high and the team are working the boat harder then ever. All good. The next 48 hours will be interesting as the whole fleet will fall in line and we can more clearly see where we are. We could do with 4 knots extra of wind as this would up us to an average of 7 knots speed over the ground and I am sure we would romp
home with that.
Foot note:
Will caught a fish 2 foot long but it got away. We recon it was an Atlantic Salmon (which seems to be the generic name for any fish you don't know what it is while crossing the Atlantic)
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