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Idea of London - VQ race team update: knock out



A chair, Michelle Pfieffer, shower, glass of wine, bed, cooked food, fresh fruit and a strong gin and tonic. A small sample of the key things people would like to have on arrival. I'll take all of those, just adjusting the order a little.

Sadly Michelle is going to have to wait a bit longer for our arrival. Early this morning we were knocked down by a sudden huge gust of wind. All hands appeared on deck in various undress to find the boom in the water, the mast on the way in and the spinnaker blown. We got the boat under control, salvaged the sorry looking spinnaker back into the bow, took headcount and damage check. Rupert had been 'on watch' at the back and close to the rail when it happened. The sudden violence and angle had forced him tumbling down toward the ocean. Unfortunately he managed to hold on and stay in the boat so our daily rationing will not increase. We've now got the smaller kite back up and are making ok progress but it will slow our time to the finish.

We wonder what else will be thrown our way: sea sickness, storms, electrical storms, squalls, swell, waves, knockdowns, no cooker, no generator, no hot water, no water, no washing, strong winds, doldrums, dolphins, whales, birds, flying fish, catching fish, ripped sails, blown spinnaker.

Its been good to have Clint and Marc aboard - Lord knows where we'd be now if we didn't have their guidance!

Peoplewise a quick summary would be: best sunset so far this evening, lots of backseat driving, beards forming well, Rupert and Tom hit in the nuts and face respectively by flying fish, increasing lack of sleep, increasing heat, morale strong.

Our congratulations to Caro for finishing in record time.


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