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EH01 - Dear Sun... Where have you gone?!?



Morning/Afternoon/Evening everyone... I don't even know what time of day it
is its so dark outside,

Well we have had an interesting night on board EH01. We had a fantastic days
sailing yesterday under white sails and headed into the night hoping for it
to continue. We knew some of the people ahead of us had headed into lighter
breezes so we all saw the opportunity to make some good gains. As usual, as
soon as the sun starts to set... the squalls seem to arrive. Every half an
hour for the whole night they came and went giving us a real good soaking
and providing some stiff breezes. We had shortened sail early in the night
putting in a couple of reefs and hoisting our number 4 headsail and we were
powering along nicely at around 8-9 knots. We managed to maintain this speed
for a good 10-12 hours throughout the night which we were thankful for this
morning... Every cloud has a silver lining and all that! After receiving
this mornings position report we were happy to see that we had gained an
average of 35 miles on the boats in front of us (except the red bandit) and
had maintained or gained on the boats behind. As the sun rose, the clouds
started to break up and we shook out the reefs, thinking that the worst of
it was behind us. The worst was about to hit...

Within about half an hour a new front of black clouds started to gather. It
didn't look so much like a squall... more like the clouds over mount doom.
Just as I started putting my foul weather gear back on it hit us... and
hard. The rain came down first swiftly followed by about 30 knots of breeze
(the wind instruments decided to die yesterday so that's my best guess!).
The rain was so heavy you could not see past the perimeter of the boat in
any direction. I felt like my internal organs were getting wet it was
raining that hard. We made the decision to just drop the main instead of
reefing and just wait for the worst to pass. We are at that stage in the
race now where my main priority is now not to break anything major! If we
were to blow our mainsail now, all the hard work we have put in so far would
of been a waste. The main was dragged down quickly and we sped off downwind
under the number 4 to ride it out.

Ever the optimists, a few of us took this opportunity to take a fairly
extreme fresh water shower as the water poured out the back of the folded
mainsail like a waterfall. Quite a bizarre site when half the crew are sat
in their full foul weather gear and a few of us are stripped down to our
boardies!

As the squall ended again, we re-hoisted the mainsail and have now switched
back to our larger number 2 headsail. The skies are looking clear again (for
now) and we are making good progress back on course! Our mission is now to
try and find another opportunity to try and dry everyone's kit. Most of us
are down to our last dry t-shirts. I personally am out of dry underwear! All
part of the ocean racing experience! At least the good ship EH01 is a good
dry boat downstairs, so at least for now everyone's bed is still dry!

In other news... One of our crewmembers husband has surprised her by booking
a wedding vow renewal for them when she arrives in St Lucia. We are all very
pleased for Karen and Peter! They have kindly invited us all to the
ceremony... I have assured her that I will wear my cleanest t-shirt (and my
driest pair of pants!). Thankfully she has told the crew the dress code is
very casual!

We are still on track for hopefully arriving early Tuesday morning with just
over 350 miles to go. As with all races, the closer you get to the finish
line the further away it seems. With the mixed bag of weather we have had
and are still expecting it looks like we could be in for a tough last 48
hours of this race. We are still committed to gaining on the boats in
front... the hard work will be worth it in the end hopefully! There are
still smiles on faces though!

For now that is all... I am off to try and dry my clothes... and my crew!!

Ciao for now,

Nick and crew

EH01


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