Day 5

What a difference a day or two makes. The seas have eased and the wind a little lighter (F5/6) so we  are cruising along at 7 knts plus with only  a rare refreshing salt sea spray. We have all settled into the routine of life at sea. Sea sickness is over. And we are all moving about the boat without collecting more bruises. The sun is shinning.  Life is good.

Team spirit is also good.  I should explain that this should be Corbin’s blog but he let me sleep in this morning – a whole 5hr sleep rather than 3, fab – so I am returning the favour and letting him sleep over.  We run a rolling watch system so that you have some time with one person and the rest with another. This means that when it is quieter the person going off duty can leave a bit early to get some extra sleep. One soon gets used to sleeping in chunks but you quickly lose track of what day it is.  With 12hrs off per day there is always time for sleep, just some of it has to be during the day, adding to the confusion and vivid dreams.  Vivid dreams are common and we have all experienced them. But to spare some blushes I had better move swiftly on, mermaids included. 

Corbin is the most experienced of the crew and now he has got used to waves (he sails on lakes mostly) his helming and sound judgment gives Emily and I enough confidence to sleep – which does not often happen so early in a journey.  Young Evan is a revelation: with 12hrs on a sail boat before this trip he has taken to sailing amazingly quickly.  He is on the helm now and from the instruments on the chart table in front of me I can see he is sailing both fast and in the right direction.  He is a nice bright young man.  Ben is another revelation. I expected a boring engineer but his sense of fun and curiosity keeps the team smiling.  He is a good team player and, Phil (the owner), he is also working on improvements to the rudder stock system.

Well life is improving aboard GE and our sister ship / competitor, Skyelark is about 7 mls behind, (we waited a bit yesterday for them as they had a sail problem).  We race against them mostly but when anything goes wrong it is good to have a friend close by.

Our friends we miss you. Our loved ones, we miss you more.  We are thinking of you.

From a small speck in  a big ocean and 1611nm to go

All my love

Stephen