26 / 1 / 2011

All is well in the Republic of Me2Me which, unlike most small nations, will be halfway between switching continents at 13:00 today. Obviously such a prestigious occasion as reaching the halfway mark must be celebrated accordingly so at lunch we will have the official "Turning of The Chart" ceremony. You see our skipper (Diesel Derek) keeps a chart on the wall with which he monitors the progress of the whole fleet. The wall is only big enough to show half the chart so as we pass halfway she must be turned. The crew will be wearing their Sunday best (probably a sarong & a vaguely clean shirt) & the moment shall be commemorated with the momentous & much anticipated opening of the only box of Zoo biscuits. How we ever managed to leave CT with only ONE box of Zoo biscuits still baffles me & our lack of Zoo biscuits has undoubtedly been our greatest

downfall in the race.

One of the most intimidating & challenging aspects of ocean racing is that it is going on all the time even at night. Helming a sail boat is hard enough as it is, with subtly shifting winds, rolling swell & very temperamental spinnakers but at night the difficulty increases exponentially as one loses all sense of one's bearings. Not being able to see the waves approaching or the horizon, it quickly feels like the boat is simply spinning in circles & one is hard pressed to have faith in the compass & maintain the slight of hand to keep her on her bearing. We were fortunate in the beginning to have a full moon about 3 days into the race, making those cold nights of sailing up the west coast far easier & less intimidating. The moon is waning fast now & increased cloud cover is making night helming a real challenge. Of course, Murphy dictates that since things can go wrong they shall do - at night! For those poor crew members who are off duty at the time, stumbling half asleep onto a heaving, rolling deck & being showered in sprays of water & urgent commands is, well, an understandably traumatic experience.

Night watches though are also the settings for some of the most valued & beautiful moments at sea. In the early days the neon glow of bio-luminescence in the boat's wake & cresting waves was beautiful & the clarity of the silver moon & stars out here is unsurpassed. Watches are done in pairs on these quiet evenings & afford a good opportunity for crew to get to know each other properly; though conversation may eventually run dry & has been known to turn to many things from General Relativity to how we're going to avoid flying-fish attack or even Andre's 5 minute monologue on how a pair of clouds looked like two dancing bears. Though cloudy, night watches are now warm & calm & over a cup of coffee they will undoubtedly conceive some of the best memories to be taken from this race.