Good Morning Team Maverick Fans,
Welcome to day 9. Well we are over half way in terms of distance but we are hoping that the second half of the track is a lot faster than their first half of the track.
We are currently lying in 4th on the preliminary leader board but are hoping that with a bit more wind we will be able to claw our way back up a few spaces. It was nice to get to meet the crew of "Stay Calm" we were berthed next to them in Marina Lanzarote. They are currently our closest competitor on the water but we are hoping that maybe we can start to pull awaay from them.
We had our first wildlife encounter in a few days with playfull dolphins playing on the bow. I always love to watch their displays as they surf on the aquatic ridge pushed frward by the yacht.
This evening in a "Classic Piers" moment he was hit in the face by a flying fish. This is our first fish strike but having seen a few fly over the yacht in the night I am quite sure it will not be our last.
As the wind has built so have our speeds and a nie benefit of this is that we can use our "Watt and Sea" Hydrogenerator again. With temperatures on the increase it is getting increasingly uncomfortable down below and running the main engine to charge the batteries only makes this worse. The increasing temperatures also make choosing the right kit harder. Really you want to be in shorts and a T-shirt but it gets very wet on this yacht...
It is another increadably dark night. The nav lights light up the kite and there is nothing else to see. No moon, no stars, no lights on the horizon, just an eritheral darkness that hides "that wave"
Congradulations to Phaedo for thier win in this event.
best get back up on deck now..
Olly out
'If you are not willing to risk the usual, you will have to settle for the ordinary."
Jim Rohn
Day 9 and we have finally crossed the halfway point. This took a lot longer than we had all envisaged when planning this trip. We are all eager to get into some more steady Trade winds tomorrow and do the second half of this trip faster than the first. This is something that we are counting on as yesterday we did an audit on our remaining food and made a decision to voluntarily preemptively cut down on our consumption so we'll not be forced to later.
The weather conditions remain quite interesting here with a high overcast cloud cover and a few drops of rain. We had a brief glimpse of the sun this afternoon but it has been otherwise very gray. The temperature has begun to increase after a cool and pleasant day yesterday.
Tonight will be another dark night with the cloud cover blocking out the little moon there is. The sea state is stil lumpy with a few different swell sets coming from various different directions.
Eric
