Andy Meiklejohn on board HUGO BOSS. Image copyright Wouter Verbraak/Alex Thomson Racing.
by Andy Meiklejohn
As I sit here on Hugo Boss as we sail through the Cook Strait, I can only think how good it is to be sailing past home. The scenery of the upper South island is amazingly rugged and desolate but incredibly beautiful.
We have had a tough time of the last 7 weeks with several issues forcing us to be slower than optimal, this was also after a very light exit to the Med, conditions that the heaviest boat in the fleet definitely did not like.
Wouter and myself have managed to pull together our resources, our common strength and the belief and with the support of Alex and our shore team to keep the yacht in the race, and here we are just 400 miles behind 4th place and the battle begins again.
Our troubles however are insignificant compared to the disaster that has just hit the Christchurch region of New Zealand. This is an area with incredible pride and emotional toughness. They boast an unrivaled sporting success through their Cricket teams, netball teams and the All-conquering Crusaders rugby outfit who have dominated southern hemisphere rugby for the last 15 years.
In September 2010 the region was hit by a 7.1 earthquake, many buildings were damaged and condemned but the city picked itself up and stood tall. Tuesday's earthquake was different; it was closer, much shallower and happened in the middle of the day not the middle of the night. There are currently 75 confirmed fatalities and over 300 still missing. Prime Minister Key has declared this New Zealand’s darkest day.
So it’s with real sadness that I sail up Cook Strait, in sight of home; its hard to feel excited when there are so many people feeling so much pain. It's great to celebrate what we do and getting to the halfway stage is an achievement in itself but it pales in comparison to what happens in the real world. It’s a real mix of emotions that’s hard to contain and harder to put down in words. We Kiwis are brought up to be hard to tragedy and sadness but sometimes it doesn’t feel right, sometimes there’s a bigger picture.
Christchurch, our thoughts are with you. Look after each other, give those you don’t know a hug or a helping hand, it’s with that bond that you will once again pull through and, like the phoenix, rise again from the ashes.
I’ll be wearing a black arm band for you as I sail past New Zealand and will be thinking of you all the way.
Andy Meiklejohn
