Simon Fisher trimming the main and Michael Pammenter driving, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Simon Fisher
I've just finished a six hour watch of beautiful, fast upwind sailing, steady(ish) breeze, Masthead Code Zero, sunshine, flat water and not too many clouds in the sky. We have been rumbling along nicely and are still making little gains on our rivals in front so at the moment it is all happy days.
As each cloud rolled by there would be a little wind shift and a gust and a lull which, after several hours, you would get into the rhythm of and perform all the necessary tweaks to keep you going at maximum pace. This afternoon though, could be a different story... Like the gopher in Caddyshack, rain clouds are starting to pop up all over the course threatening to mess up our afternoon and seeing as we cannot get the dynamite out to get rid of them, we are just going to have to weave our way round!!
Other than that, things have been pretty stable for the last 24 hours. We've been making good miles in nice conditions. Twelve days into the leg and everyone seems to be very much into the rhythm of things and each watch seems to roll by without drama or hardship. Long may this continue I say as we certainly have a few more weeks to go...
Michael Pammenter and Simon Fisher get lunch before duty, on Telefonica Blue, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
With that said, I am starting to miss a few of life's little luxuries that you can find on shore, I found myself earlier thinking of a nice cold drink with condensation rolling down the side which would have been so refreshing out in the midday sun... mmmmmmm.... oops, better stop that or I'll drive myself mad!!
So for me now it's off to a few hours in my bunk - it is hard to sleep now that the temperature is up, but it is pleasant to just relax with a cooling breeze blowing from the fan and some tunes from the iPod. Well I guess life is not so bad after all, I cannot think of many other jobs where you get to have a siesta every other day!
Volvo Ocean Race
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