MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM G'TON

Merry christmas wherever you are in the world!! It's bloody hot here!! Wish i could skype or something but there is nowhere open with internet, so all i
have is my boat email.
First night sleep back on the boat after saying goodbye to mum and dad and the luxury accomodation with air-con that came with them! Through the night I
came to realise that the boat bunks are not designed for a normal nights sleep (ie over 3 hours at a time) or for someone who isn't exhusted when they fall
into them!! Not really a normal xmas so far..... Woke up for about the 50th time this morning and decided enough was enough so got up and went for a run
with one of the other guys in the crew. Bad move - it must have been at least 30 degrees already at 0915hrs!! Have never sweated so much in all my life!
Nearly died!! Cooled off and washed my running clothes with a swim in the indian ocean before unwrapping my presents from mum and dad while the couple of
other crew that are staying on board opened theirs too. - Thanks mum and dad - It wouldn't be christmas without chocolate for breakfast/brunch!! :) Then it
was off for a shower in the plastic portable showers before cereal and warm yogurt for lunch! So, so far not very christmasy but we have a clipper BBQ and
drinks this afternoon which should be fun and is likely to get a bit messy!! Ahhhhh good times!
Right time to move i'm seriously sticking to this nav station seat!! Thinking of you all either freezing your butts off up in the northern hemisphere or
having a slightly warmer time but not as warm as me back home in kiwi land.
Miss you! Wish I was there. Hugs, Kisses and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!
Becs xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Land at Last!

Ahhhhhhhhhh, I'm clean!  I've had my fresh chicken salad (2 actually) and cereal with yoghurt!  Had a spa bath with bubbles, washed my hair, shaved my legs, painted my nails, used a flush toilet, done 6 loads of washing and had two 8 hour sleeps in a stationary bed with sheets and no leecloth!!  Once I was off the boat and in a clean environment I can't believe how suddenly stinky everything was (including me! – only did ever get the one shower in 25 days!).

 

Oh yeah and …….We won! We won! We won!! Yaaaaahoooooo!

At 1210hrs on Wednesday (16^th) we crossed the finish line 32 minutes ahead of Spirit of Australia in front of the crowd on the shore.  I could tell where Mum and Dad were when I saw the Finnish and the silver fern flags flying!  It was an amazing feeling to finally set foot back on dry land once we were moared up, the celebratory champagne had been passed around and photos taken.  The Geraldton community have gone out of their way to welcome us with loads of people down at the marina to cheer us in and drinks and a BBQ as soon as we stepped of the boat.  Our photo is plastered on the front of the paper with a double page spread inside, we've been on the local news and radio and on Sunday we are parading down the main street before a welcome reception with the major and our prize giving down at the yacht club!

 

No rest for the wicked though, we completed our deep clean the afternoon we got in and yesterday we were lifted up onto the dry dock for a bottom wash and new coats of antifouling paint.  I'm allocated to the rigging team so we're responsible for checking all the rigging and ropes, replacing or repairing them where necessary and coming up with new ideas to help reduce the chafing and wear and tear to prevent breakages.   Tomorrow once we're lowered back onto the water it's time to go up the mast to complete our rigging check and replace the windex light bulb which we lost a few nights before the end of the race.   The 'sails team' have been away busy in a warehouse checking all our sails for damage and making the necessary repairs and the maintenance team have already serviced the heads and most of the winches so it's been full on! Everyone is keen to get things finished as quickly as possible to enjoy some much deserved time off over Christmas and New Year.

 

Right I'm off to have a swim it's sooooooo hot!  Mum and Dad have an awesome apartment right on the marina.  I have my own bedroom with a view out to the boats and an ensuite and we also have a spa bath.  There is a pool, spa pool and BBQ area down stairs!  Ahhhhhh Luxury!!!!

---

Check on MSN NZ Money for a hand Feeling the financial pinch?

The race is on!!

The kiwi vs Aussie rivalry is obvious especially on the sports field but
the Team Finland vs Aussie definitely matches it! They are hot on our
tails keeping us on our toes and making us work to keep our lead for the
remaining 60miles. The atmosphere on board has become a little more
serious! Can we hold them off for another 6 hours??
It has been a frustrating night; we've had a favorable wind angle to
come in on a broad reach, polling out our Yankee on a direct course to
Geraldton with 25-30knots of wind. However we've been facing an
unexpected opposing current of around 2knots on average slowing us down
most of the night and allowing the Aussies to make a lot of ground,
being only 5 miles behind at the last update!

It amazes me that over an ocean crossing of 4800nm with 24 days at sea
the race is this close! The distance between 3rd and 7th is also only
15 miles so every position on the podium is going to be hard fought!
Unfortunately Cork and Hull and Humber, having had repairs made
following their collision back on the start line in Cape Town, left up
to a week later than us. They are now still a way off and will be
missed at the inevitably huge party tonight! Ahhhhhhh I can't believe
we'll be on land in a matter of hours!!

We've been back in full foulies as the sea state has been rough, the
swells often hitting us straight on our beam (side of the boat) causing
plenty of waves to keep us awake! With my last night watch for this leg
completed, I've stripped off my soaking wet foulies and am on my way to
my bunk. Hopefully I'll wake in 2.5 hours for breakfast with land in
sight and those damn Aussies behind us!

'SISU to the Finnish!'

Christmas has come early

Today started off like any other, reluctantly woken 2 hrs early for
happy hour at 1200hrs. But half an hour later festive spirits are high!
Christmas has come early on board - we all had a present from our on
board Santa Claus Pauline, who gave us all Santa hats and chocolate (we've
been without chocolate for a number of days now), then Andy P had more
chocolate to give out that he had saved all the way from Grimsby in the
UK! Christmas music played from the on deck speakers and a Christmas carol
was sung into the wind which, adding to our good spirits, we have found
again meaning its back into our wet weather gear as the waves break over
the bow at times making all the way down to the helm and life is once
again being lived on an angle! Then as the cherry on the top of our
early Christmas off the new race update came in and we've made another 4
miles on the Aussies putting us 14nm in total closer to the finish line!
So heading to lunch now it's just like a typical Christmas, I'm too full
of chocolate and sugar!

It has felt like we have had only a few days left for so long now but now
it's really true. We have 220nm (less than 22 hours at the speeds we've
been doing over the last 24hrs) until we cross the finish line and can
have all those luxuries we have been dreaming about for at least the last
10 days - the first drink, shower, fresh meal, clean dry clothes, flat
bed, more than 3 hours sleep........ Mmmmmmmmmm

xx

Fending off the Aussies with 525nm to go!!

After writing my last blog and heading climbing into my bunk yesterday
morning we woke in the afternoon to see Spirit of Australia hot on our
tails off our stern (back of the boat), they had caught some wind that
we were desperately lacking! The next race update confirmed what we
already knew. The damn Aussies had gained even more miles on us and
were only 3nm behind! The binoculars were out and we matched them move
for move in a gybing duel. At happy hour Eero (skipper) was more
positive than most, pleased to have them in our sights so that at least
we were subject to the same weather/wind conditions and quietly
confident that we can be the faster boat.

During the night I did the hardest bit of helming so far! We had only 6
knots of extremely variable wind coming from anywhere between 200-250
degrees. It was dark, there were no stars and I couldn't see the horizon
other than the nav lights of the Aussies still breathing down our necks
off our starboard beam (right hand side of the boat). I'm not sure
who/what was struggling more - me to keep our course or the light weight
spinnaker to fly! I always imagined that helming was most difficult in
strong winds and rough seas, waves crashing over the deck, boat heeling
(leaning) over, gunnels (where the hull of the boat joins the deck) in
the water but actually it's so much harder to keep on course when there
is little to no pressure in the sails, the movements of the wheel have
to be so gentle and small and the boat takes much longer to react.

It's 0400hrs and time for bed again. I might have to raid the galley
first though I'm starving! I'm not sure if it's because I deserve to be
hungry from working hard or whether my stomach now just expects a
constant flow of food! It has been a reasonably busy night though. The
wind has improved slightly over this watch, the lightweight kite is
flying happily (hopefully I haven't just jinxed it!). I managed to clock
our 48hr speed record of 7.4knots over the ground just before coming
down below. I can feel a few bruises coming out on my legs as we've
also been busy with a few gybes through the night which has meant
climbing up the downhaul (one of the 3 ropes attached to the outer end
of the spinnaker pole) to set up our tripping line (used if we needed to
drop the spinnaker). Hopefully it's all been worth it though, we lost
the Aussies over the horizon again as the sun came up (at 3 in the
morning!).

So how's the Christmas shopping going? Loving all those Christmas
carols? Can't wait to hear all the goss from the Christmas parties!
There better be some juicy emails waiting for me when we hit land or
I'll be very disappointed! :) We're very much removed from all the
festivities out here, although we did have a special happy hour lead by
our 3 Dutch crew mates for St Nicholas day last week. I think Christmas
this year will be a BBQ on the beach. The poms on board can't wait to
throw some shrimps on the barbe, mate!!

Nite x

Bare chests and wind dances

We're stuck and going no where fast! Our windex (arrow at the top of the mast indicating wind direction) is doing loop'd'loops and we're all slowly going
mad down on deck too. As we had anticipated, the wind has slowly been dropping more and more over the last few days. We weren't doing to badly, making the
most of what we had - until this morning when the wind completely died. The night before last with our spinnaker up we were even making 6.4 knots SOG
(speed over ground - often different to speed through the water due to current/drift) which was faster than the wind speed of about 5.2!! However we now
have only 2knots true wind and the ocean is like a pond (but it's an amazing blue!!). We had to drop our light weight kite (spinnaker) 3 hours ago when it
just wouldn't stay filled and currently our windseeker (big light weight head sail on the front of the boat) is flapping backwards and forwards doing very
little with us moving 0.1-0.9 knots (we're just thankful that it's forwards not backwards! Our computer is encouragingly reporting it will take us 54!!
days to get to Australia!! It's been suggested that it would be faster to swim, only we're a bit worried about sharks! - better hope we find some wind
soon!

The midlayers and foulies that we were wearing just 48 hours ago have been stripped off. Bare chested men seem to be multiplying on deck while us ladies
are remaining more conservative - possibly due to our legs not having seen a razor in 3 weeks now! Although I'm pleased to report my shorts did still fit
over my longjohns despite our diet of chocolate and carbs!! :) It's all very nice sun bathing while on watch but it's more than mildly frustrating! After
all THIS IS A RACE!!! The cause of all this? We are currently sailing right through the middle of an unavoidable massive high sitting right off the coast
of Australia, smack bang between us and Geraldton! All we can do is hope that the rest of the fleet are experiencing something similar enough for us to
hold our lead until we find some pressure again. So everyones fingers and toes crossed please!!!

We were thankful for the light winds during the night when we spent 4+ hours under emergency steering! Our wheel had come loose and the bolt to hold it on
was threaded. Luckily after a few (unusually failed) Team Finland ingenuity attempts (including hack sawing into our vang pole!) after emails back and
forward with the Clipper engineer a temporary fix has been made and we're back to using our wheel again.

The highlight of yesterdays happy hour was John, who is finishing after this leg, passing on his wind dancing expertise to the rest of the crew. I'll post
photos when we finally make it to land, it was hilarious! Another benefit is that the boat is flat!!! (even if it is rocking a bit). Life is therefore
100x easier. It's also seemed to have meant that we are sleeping more deeply, making it harder to wake up but it has meant that I'm feeling a bit revived.
Desperate for activity on deck this morning we even had a bit of a gym circuit going, the rigging of a racing yacht makes an amazing multigym funnily
enough....a bit sad I know! haha

I've sunbathed enough, been to the gym, had our last grapefruit for breakfast, written a blog and baked some biscuits – even with chocolate icing (times are
getting desperate, shockingly the kilo's and kilo's of chocolate is gone and people are almost resorting to the muesli bars!!) It's now 9 in the morning
and it's my bed time, can't afford to have too late a 'night' !! :)

Night night xx

832nm to go!!

I have just been woken from from yet another weird dream to head up on deck for our happy hour meeting. One thing a lot of people seems to experience on
board is vivid and weird dreams! I'm not sure why? ?disturbed sleep, rocking/moving surroundings, 2.5-3hrs only at a time? Most of mine involve sailing or
clipper or my crew mates in some way although I did have one 'normal' life dream and woke up very disorientated! I also had one where I had twins?? What
does that mean? New beginnings??
The other thing that no one has escaped is waking up completely disorientated to time and in a mad panic that you have overslept for your watch or gone back
to sleep after your wake up call (which is VERY easy to do and is probably safe to say everyone has done at least once!). Some people in this mad panic
have even 'jumped' out of their bunk and frantically started trying to get ready only to be looked at strangely and told it is 2 hours before they need to
be on deck get back to bed! When we first came on board as newbie leggers we were warned about this and all thought we had gotten away with it not
affecting us until about day 3-4 when we too succumbed to it to!

Routine daily life continues on Team Finland but we can almost smell the finish line. Latest update at happy hour was that we only have 832nm to go to
Geraldton and made another 3nm on the Aussies! I never wrote about passing Uniquely Singapore and Spirit of Australia it was an exciting time, however
we're all well aware it's not over till it's over. Now that we have and have been holding our lead we're doing all we can to make sure it stays that way!!
Unfortunately we have a massive high sitting smack bang between us and Australia that we have no choice but to sail through. Sitting in the nav station
typing this blog I can see our nav computer and grib file showing light variable (from changing directions) winds. Although at the moment - touch wood -
the weather outside tells a different and much better story. We continue to have a constant wind of 17knots from the NW allowing us to make good progress
at 9-10knots along our great circle route. It has remained this way for the past 3 or more days (it's easy to lose track!) so things have been slow on deck
with a minimal number of sail changes required. Last night we finally noticed it was slightly warmer than it had been now that we have been moving steadily
further north-east.

Reading through some of my previous blog entries, I realised it may be that through some of my descriptions of life on
board, it may be difficult to realise that (or understand how) I'm having the time of my life! I guess in some ways it's kind of like running a marathon (I
imagine) There are moments that you ask yourself why the hell you're doing this to yourself. But then there are other times that you love it and go back
for more! The cold is probably what I find most difficult to deal with and I don't see it changing. The colder and more tired you are on deck the less and
less motivated you are to move, but actually that is the best cure, so it's times like these that if there is nothing else happening on deck, I'll make
myself go up to the bow to check sail trim or go on the helm (or kindly offer to go down below and put the kettle on for everyone or bake something :) All
the jobs on deck in the right (or wrong) conditions involve something that could be perceived as undesirable eg getting soaked by a bow wave on the fore
deck at 0200hrs in the morning. But working on the bow with the other foredeck guys is awesome and one of my favorite parts! Standing on the top rail of
the pulpit (frame at the front of the boat - picture 'Jack I'm flying' from titanic)looking back down the length of the boat, leaning on and clinging to the
forestay with my legs while the bow of the boat dives into a swell sending a massive wave crashing into me and almost lifting me off as I hank or unhank one
of the head sails or leaning at the full stretch of my safety line out over the side of the boat to drag in the foot of a head sail in a sail drop then
throwing my self on top of it to keep it down on the deck as 4 of us fight with the rest of the sail to bring it on board. I also love wearing the nappy
(think I've mentioned this before) - the affectionate name we have for the harness and climbing the mast for rigging checks or the spinnaker pole to 'spike'
the clew to release it for a spinnaker drop. Basically the more challenging the better that's what makes it exciting and fun.

xx

Good day at work?

So how was everyones day at work in land? My split shift system saw me
helming in the pitch black until 0400hrs last night/this morning - I
couldn't even see the mast! When you are handed over the helm you
are given instructions of what to steer to. Sometimes it is a wind
angle for best speed, sometimes a compass course, sometimes it is a
course over ground or more confusingly sometimes a mixture! You
generally try and helm by 'feeling' the motion of the boat through the
water and swells and anticipating the correctionon you need to make on
the wheel to keep your course steady, using the instuments as a
reference only. It is made more or less difficult by the wind
strength, direction and variablity, what sails we have up, the light and
visiblity and the sea state (oh - and wheather your getting soaked with
rain or waves and what kind of angle your having to stand on!).

After 2.5 hours sleep I was up again and on deck for 0800hrs. No rest
for the wicked - the wind had picked up and it was up to the bow to hank
on and prepare the yankee 2, drop the yankee 1, hoist the yankee 2 and
flake (fold up and put in it's bag) the yankee 1. One of the things
that first struck me on our first day of training was just how large,
thick and heavy the sails are, which makes team work vital!
With the wind still rising next was taking in a reef (making the main
sail smaller). Then i baked flapjacks/krunchie before heading back on
deck to helm so Andy could go below and take his turn on 'mother watch'
to prepare our lunch. 2.5hrs later i'm finally off the helm and my
shoulders ache!!! Usually we don't do so long on the helm at a time so
that your concentration is mantained at it's best. Howver today the
weather was too wet and cold to have our happy hour on deck so while the
othes met down below 2 of us stayed up on deck.

It's not always busy on deck. Although some times i go off watch
exhusted and aching at other timess we'll spend our whole 6 hour day
watch or 4 hour night watch sitting on the high side of the deck and not
have to do anything other than check the sail trim every so often. This
can be quite nice looking out at the ocean if the sun is out and it's
not too cold. But especially at night, when its cold, dark and often
we're getting sprayed with waves or rained on it's not so fun and you
wish there would be a wind change so we'd have to do something just to
warm up and get off out butts! (Also one of the reasons it's good to be
able to rotate onto the helm!).

The weather changes so quickly out here. Sometimes i go to bed and it's
a bright sunny day and i'm woken up later to 30 knot winds, confused
seas and generally cold and wet conditions. The other day we were so
becalmed we were only doing about 0.5knots. Andy P turned up at happy
hour in fancy dress - his dive suit - and following our meeting he
abandoned ship and tied to a rope dove down to check out our rudder
after our whale encounter.

2 days ago we celebrated Finlands independance day. At happy hour the 3
Fins on board gave us a bit of a finnish history lesson, there was even
more chocolate eaten than normal and we had a toast to finland, all
having a shot of finlandia.

Right time to sign off. It's 1630hrs I've only got 3 hours left of my 6
hour off watch left to get some sleep before being woken again.

Night x

Likes, Dislikes and I Can't Waits.....

DISLIKES:
*Being woken at midnight or 0400hrs (or any time!) to put my wet socks,
boots and foulies back on and head up on deck.
*hotdogs in a can 3 days in a row
*Needing to wash my hair
*The computer losing my last blog just as i was about to send it!

LOVES:
*Henry Lloyd gaiters that stop my boots filling with water on the bow
*Gill Mid-layer romper suit to keep me toasty warm on deck at night
*Merino Icebreaker top - Apparently NZ sailing legend Peter Blake wore
his for 40 days - not a record i'm planning on trying to break! I think
i'm finally going to have to give mine up to the dirty washing bag after
17 days!
*Snuggling into my toasty warm, fleecy lined, ocean sleeping bag
*Copious amounts of chocolate at any given time of the day (yes even 2
or 7 in the morning!)
*Boat baked bread for b'fast in the morning
*SAILING ACROSS THE SOUTHERN OCEAN AND HEARING WE'VE MADE MORE MILES
ON THE AUSSIES!!!

CAN'T WAITS:
*To see mum and dad for the first time in 2 years standing on the marina
cheering us in as we come into Geraldton in about 8 days (even better if
we're still in first place!)
*My first shower and hair wash
*To sleep for more than 3 hours at a time
*To wake up a a normal hour and put on dry clean clothes
*For a fresh salad with chicken with icecream for desert

Day 13 - day of the shower!

We've had some bad, wet, rough weather but still haven't really seen the massive swells or huge winds that we expected of the Southern Ocean. Tactical
decisions due to the wind forcasts have meant that we have stayed relatively north which has meant slightly warmer weather too, yesterday some people were
even on deck in shorts! Over the last few days with the sea being calmer and sailing on a broad to beam reach so the boat has been flater, the prospect of
showers had been talked about with excitment for the last few days . However due to tactics, timing and a few weather changes it wasn't until yesterday -
day 13! that it finally happened - they were brief but BLISS!! We even had hot water! I had forgotten what it was like to have clean hair!! (the whole 'your
hair cleans itself is a myth!!). It was still a bit of a challenge to remain upright while standing in the startboard heads with soap and water making it
even more slippery, but there's no question about it - definaltey worth the effort. Clean body also meant that it was time for some clean clothes too!
Although I have to admit that i'm still wearing my merino icebreaker that I started the race in! I can't bear to get rid of it to the washing bag. It's
just so warm and dries easily and it still passes the sniff test! Gotta love NZ icebreakers.

A couple of days ago we scored our first gate points. 2 points for crossing 2nd. After the whale incident we didn't know if we would be able to catch the
boats infront of us in time so it was awesome news to hear we came second by around 1.5 hrs. The latest position updates just in this morning show we made
a small gain on the Aussies who are now only 7 miles infront of us. We will have our eyes peeled south off our starboard side over the next few hours as
they should come into view. We'd been flying our heavy weight spinnaker for about the last 37 hours making a good average of 10-13 knots off 20knots true
wind, I was helming as close to due east as we could hold and directly into the rising sun (nice but rough on the eyes!) but then at 0600hrs completed
another errorless drop when the wind continued to veer to far round for us to hold our course with the spinnaker up.

I seem to spend most of my time on either of the 2 opposite ends of the boat. I've been doing a lot of helming especially at night with the spinnaker up as
we have a limited number of people able to helm in those conditions. I've also been wearing the nappy (the affectionate name for the harness). This is
basically a climbing harness that someone on deck has to wear when ever the spinnaker is up incase we have to quickly climb the pole to release the clew of
the spinnaker for a quick drop (we also use it for climbing the mast and rigging for various reasons). With all the helming, spinnaker trimming and working
with the pole and head sails on the bow and foredeck my shoulders and arms are constantly sore. It's like going to the gym for 5 work outs every 48hrs and
no rest days! My hands are slowly hardening up and i reakon i've got virtually no finger prints left! But as the skin gets tougher and rougher they are
also getting itchy! It's sore to make a tight fist and my finger tips are still tender but it's gradually getting better and as soon as i have to do
something on deck everything is forgotten and it's all go! It's usually the guys that i'm working with on the foredeck so I'm determinded to prove kiwi
girls can do anything they can and it's very seldom that i accept that they can physically do something better than i can!

It's been awesome to be back closer to home in the southern hemisphere and see the southern cross in the sky at night! It's also becoming obvious that we
are making our way slowly but surely east. Last night when I came on watch at 2000hrs boat time it was pitch black and this morning there was an amazing
sunrise at 3 in the morning!! Spectacular the whole sky and ocean were a bright scarlet/orange.

As i've mentioned before we have a huge mix of crew on board from all over the world (19 different nationalities within the crew in total over the whole
race) This along with different opinions, goals, ideas, personalities...the list goes on... can make for interesting times in such close quaters!! However
in saying that we have become like a family, out here the only people we have to rely on is each other, there is great atmosphere on board (ok maybe not as
your woken at 4 in the morning to go out into the dark cold and wet). Everyone really looks out for each other. Like our family's back on land you learn to
read peoples moods and in this challenging environment you also recognise everyones different strengths and weaknesses including your own which can
sometimes be surprising!

Returning to london after training weeks down in Gosport. I always said it was tougher and tougher every time to have to return to reality and 'normal'
life. However although this may not be 'normal' life there's been nothing like cold, wet, salty southern ocean bow waves in my face and down the front of
my foulies at 2 in the morning to make me realise that this is definitely reality!!!.... and there is nothing else in the world I'd rather be doing right
now!!

Becs, living the dream
xx

Having a Whale of a Time!

Written for the Clipper web site crew blog 01/12/09

As the sun came up this morning there was good humour on deck and
numerous whale jokes going around however the mood was all a little more
serious and sombre late last night. B watch had just recently come on
deck and darkness had set in. We were flying our heavy weight kite
making a good 10 knots. I was on the helm having recently got my
'spinnaker driving licence'. It seemed like smooth sailing and after
our last race update we were making good progress, however as we are all
coming to realise things can change quickly at sea! Suddenly there was a
thud as a sharp jolt came through the helm. I along with others let out
a few confused expletives and expected that I had lost the steering.
However this wasn't the case and those behind the helm looked aft to see
the large tail of the culprit having hit our rudder, surface before
disappearing again into the darkness. Our log book now reads 2105hrs;
'hit whale, rudder damaged??'. With a whole ocean to play in what were
the chances? (since then coming up with ideas as to why has become a
popular pass time – from that whales sleep below the surface to it was
attracted to the hum of our generator). We haven't been far enough
south to need an iceberg watch but maybe a whale watch is more
appropriate, although still difficult in the dark, as like this one, it
was in full camouflage and stealth mode.

Seconds after it happened Eero was on deck and turns were taken by him
and our watch leaders to go down into the lazarette and check out our
steering system. A consensus was reached that there seemed to be some
damage to our rudder. The race office was contacted, while on deck a
smooth and speedy spinnaker drop took place. On the helm it was my
first opportunity to see this evolution take place without being in
amongst it. Instructions were shouted into the wind directing the 7
other crew in their various roles to work swiftly together in the
darkness wrestling the sail almost the size of a tennis court and with a
mind of its own down, through the 'letterbox' slot between the main sail
and boom, onto the deck and down below. It is amazing that something
that looks so chaotic, all comes together so smoothly!

With possible rudder damage we thought our race prospects were over. We
didn't want to believe it and held our breath that it wasn't the case!
As the night went on the steering remained ok and it began to seem that
maybe we had gotten away lightly with no damage after all. As a
precaution our sail configuration remained conservative over night
causing us to lose hard fought miles to our closest competitors and
dropping our position back to 4th within the highly contested top 4.

So lesson learnt (don't hit whales – or don't let them hit you).
However trying to find a positive - how many other people will be able
to one day tell their grandchildren 'back when I was young and sailing
part of the way around the world we hit a whale in the southern ocean'.
As I go off watch this morning we're as determined as ever to claw back
those miles before the scoring gate! The spinnaker is back up and I'll
go to my bunk with the sound of 'trim…..hold' above me. Spirit of
Australia, Cape Breton Island, Uniquely Singapore watch your backs Team
Finland are back in the race and hot on your tails!