Well we won😄👏. Not just the first race, but also the first ocean sprint and the Stormhoek Social Spirit award! Wow. Crossing the finishing line was fantastic, and we had a wonderful reception in Punta del Este; I guess being 4.30 on a sunny Saturday afternoon helped. took a long time to sink in, though. Probably not until the awards evening really. I think that’s because we were a couple of days behind the fleet and, therefore, had spent most of the race by ourselves. However, that’s typical for long distance ocean racing and, as this is my first long distance race, I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Roll on the next race; we can’t wait to show the fleet a proper clean pair of heels. The challenge is to not put too much pressure on ourselves and just do the best we can.e last week has flown by. We had to spend a long day deep cleaning Polly, and return her to an acceptable condition. It’s something we will try to stay on top of in the future. Then a number of repairs and some routine maintenance. I had to rebuild the two masthead spinnaker blocks as the plastic bearings had completely collapsed – soooo much nicer to do it in port on a sunny day with a gentle breeze. Last time when I had to go up to retrieve a spinnaker halyard just north of the doldrums, I was whipped around quite a lot, even though we were on a fairly stable spinnaker run. I used a carabiner to clip to the shrouds to minimise movement, but I think it might have made it worse. Still, the bruises have finally faded 😏. I can’t believe how much weight I lost; probably 7 or 8 kg! A good reason to eat lots of steak though- accompanied by some great red wine. Tannat is a variety I haven’t come across before, and it’s really nice; originally from the Madiran AOC in south-west France.

What a start though. David’s injury could have been so much worse, but he’s healing well and we’ll have him back in Fremantle. He’s coming out to Cape Town with Andrew Greening, so we’ll catch up whilst doing some corporate events for Greenings. We’ve had so many magical moments though; almost too many to recount. Swimming in the doldrums was awesome; incredible cloud formations, sunrises and sunsets; sooo many stars out at night and new constellations; the incredible wildlife, particularly the dolphins who come and play with so much energy; steering a racing yacht at night, making around 17 knots under spinnaker (Don hit 21 knots 😏). All that fun and have I mentioned that we won? (You’ll have to forgive me for going on about it, but we’re really quite chuffed.)

We met our new step-skipper yesterday, Andy Woodruff, and we will be going out on the water with him tomorrow so he can have a look at us, and so that the 8 new Leg 2 guys and girls can get their feet wet. With 35 knots of wind forecast, it could be bit of a baptism 😳. We also have a replacement Code 3 spinnaker (The Prodigal Son), but it’s not new. It’s already been around the world in the 13/14 race so, having had some ‘strengthening’ by Jenny and her sail repair team, we’ll be able to see how it copes. Andy seems great, and is competitive with a great sense of humour; all bodes well.

Jeremyx