Hummingbird - Head south until the duct tape melts

The last 24 hours have been busy busy busy! Cui, our onboard cinematographer, has been making amazing videos with his gopro 6/film making app/selfie stick combo to show off Hummingbird sliding through the big blue. Planking practise has been stepping up a notch in anticipation of our end of trip boat-wide competition: bodies have been strewn around any open patch of space they can find, flexing up on elbows and tip toes, core muscles shaking as they try to beat Frasers current sweaty 30 degree celsius top time of 1 minute 45 seconds. John caught our first fish! A smallish nipper; a warm up for the 7 foot tuna to come.

Lunch time brought Nicky’s Nautical Notes; our midday briefing and weather forecast update. This time we had a big decision to make… maintain our westward course on starboard gybe, on which we had been making great progress so far, and potentially run into some sub-standard light airs in a couple of days? Or gybe, and head south away from the rhumb line to seek a slightly higher probability of consistent winds later in the week. With all in favour of shaking up the norm, we voted to gybe south, and off we have rocketed towards Brazil where maybe our raging penchant for Caipirinhas can be satiated.

Overnight, antics escalated. A little kite wrap prompted a rapid response from the watch on deck and those down below snoozing. It’s awesome that as a relatively new sailing team, with most onboard for their first ever big offshore passage, we’re so slick and successful when it comes to tackling inconveniences – which are almost exclusively in the moonless pitch-black darkness. It’s always with such light hearted happiness and support for each other that we find ourselves carefully dragging the spinnaker down the forestay, swallowed whole by the fabric as though we’re in a bouncy castle/ overenthusiastic wedding dress. Dealing with minor setbacks with these guys is a total pleasure, and adds to the adventure of ocean sailing.... which is actually pretty convenient considering this morning we had to hoist and drop the kite a further two times to deal with small rips, possibly caused by the spreader ends. Our beloved Ladies of the Kite have been working hard over the spinnaker tape and needles, and in reward have earnt an extra couple of hours in bed through their watch this morning.

The sun is stretching higher above the horizon and turning every ounce of relief the night once brought us into a sweaty, hot as the devil, relentless sauna of fire. The factor 50 is applied liberally on the hour, particularly to those as translucent as myself, as we enviously watch Nicky and Michelle gain killer tan lines more and more each day. As long as the watermaker keeps doing it’s thing, quick refreshing boat-showers are the ultimate dream. Then shortly after midday the sun finally dips behind the spinnaker and drowns Hummingbird in shade, and the cooler foredeck becomes the main hubbub for r&r and disco dancing led by DJ John. The evening meals have been gourmet feasts prepared in the sweat shop of a galley, showcasing Tony’s skills chopping onions and Gina’s talents with spices and herbs. Below decks allows for some escape from the sun when off watch, and as the sea is so flat you’re allowed to open the hatch above your bunk if you’re in it to whip some breeze throughout, alongside our USB fans – bliss!

That is not at all to say that we’d rather be in the wintry cold and rain of the UK right now… we’ll keep the glorious sunshine and endless tropical blue skies, thanks!

Holly (who is actually not the palest on board, for the first time ever) x