Day 18 - Another South Atlantic 'Hi!”

Light wind racing, contrary to what one might think is often far more challenging than heavy wind sailing. It involves full concentration and you need to dig deep to keep the boat moving. It’s essential that you keep your cool, and don’t get frustrated no matter how taxing the conditions become.

Grib files (weather forecasts) for the next three days do not look great. It hasn’t done too much for morale. In the last 24 hours we only managed 135nm. However, to put it in perspective you need only page back in our logbook where you can see that our worst day in the 2011 race was 23nm.

It’s been a relatively sombre day on board. Michaela has taken to making everyone bracelets out of rope. She will strip a piece of rope into strands and then re-plait them into a funky design. Ryan is now a third of the way through ‘long walk to freedom’.

On-board cuisine, like the moon, has begun to wane. The high-point was yesterday when we had pizza (without cheese), and I’m afraid that is as good as it will get. Our remaining food bags include soya mince, spaghetti, tinned tuna and provitas. To make things worse, yesterday saw our peanut butter supplies get depleted. One of our followers sent through some recipes for flying fish: although discarded at first, they might require a revisit.

Besides having only three teabags left, we now have further incentive to hurry onto the land of Samba: there are only two rolls of toilet paper and a box of tissues left. It would also be great to get some laundry that has been washed in fresh water: Our laundry has all been done with salt water, so the sea salt patches that remain after the final rinse gives a somewhat tie-dye effect to all your kit.

There has been another grievance that is being brought to the attention of The Board. The accused is Bren, and the charge is that of smuggling snacks. He was found out when, during a rainsquall, someone threw up his foulie jacket by mistake to Ryan, and when Ryan investigated the sizeable object in the left pocket, found a stash of Oreos. Michaela is being cited as an accomplice.

I thought it would nice to end this post off by giving some perspective on how the whole transatlantic dream came about, and give credit to a man who played a vital part in it all. In the September of 2010, a lazy spring day spent out at the Vaal, it was suggested that we looked into doing the next Rio race. So with three months to go, we set out to find a yacht to charter.

The first person we approached was the owner of a pretty Simonis 35, called Ciao Bella. This man was kind enough to offer us his beautiful boat, with the only requirements being that we bring it back in good condition, with a case of Brazilian beer. And that is how it began…

We have since bought Ciao Bella from Mark Hammick, and while we are sailing this race with her in our name, we will never forget his kind gesture and the role he played in making our dream adventure come true. So, we are nearly there. Just have to negotiate one more light patch and the Rio parking lot, and who knows what the final outcome will be............With sailing, it’s never over until it’s over!