Return Crew Day 13 – 20 February 2020

Return Crew Day 13 - 20 February 2020 By Clare Cole We have had 2 days of good wind and finally the motor is having a good rest. We had growing concerns that having motored continuously for what felt like a week,(actually only 50 hours in total) that we would run precariously low on fuel before our scheduled refuel stop in Tristan. Rory and Tony witnessed the biblical phenomenon of the “never dropping” fuel gauge - whether this was true or apparent we ... Read more

Return Crew Day 12 - 19 February 2020 By Kristy Whillier THE WIND IS BACK!! It has been a quiet and peaceful day without the sound of the engine running, which also means that it will be easier to hear the sound of the reel when a fish has taken the lure... This has, however, been taken advantage of by Oliver and Francois with them pranking each other, making the running reel sound and causing each other to rush to the rods: only ... Read more

Return Crew Day 11 - 18 February 2020 By Cameron Schmidt It has been 10 days since our departure and I am glad to say we are into full swing. From what I have seen there seems to be some method to all our madness. Some of us take to reading, napping and others Netflix or in Francois’s case, playing cricket on his phone. For those of you that have been following the tracker you might have noticed that we moved from heading South ... Read more

Return Crew Day 10 - 17 February 2020 By Tony Another day on a small boat in the south Atlantic. My first watch of the day starts at 0600 so up at about 0530. Stick your head out of the cabin; is it a foulies or shorts and t-shirts type of day? Wake Oli my watch partner and shoot the breeze with the previous watch, Rory and Robin. On watch from 0600 to 0800, in most instances the balance of the crew slumbers so ... Read more

Return Crew Day 9 - 16 February 2020 By Clare Cole. Today I am writing my first blog from a becalmed little boat in the most remote spot in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Following an eventful 24hours Yesterday afternoon, the wind died in the early evening and we had to rely on motoring with just an occasional sail. Supper was a more organised affair, as we are getting into the swing of the change in daylight hours and working our meal ... Read more

Return Crew Day 8 - 15 February 2020 By Oliver Menhinick Yesterday, just after we sent the blog, a few of us were just relaxing and enjoying the sail when we heard that beautiful sound of a fishing reel running. The first person to the rod was the one and only Francois who quickly grabbed it and started to work at bringing the fish in. We were all a bit confused at first as to what type of fish it was when we ... Read more

Return Crew Day 7 - 14 February 2020 By Robyn Wolstenholme For dinner last night we had pasta and sauce with made by Kristy and Francois with actual meat. Towards the evening the cloud cover cleared up and we saw a sunset for the first time in a couple days. After the sun had set we looked up to see a wonderful display of the Milky Way. It was the most stars that we had seen the entire journey. All the okes that ... Read more

Return Crew Day 6 - 13 February 2020 By Kristy Whillier. First of all; well done to the race crew for stocking up on endless amounts of “Vegetable Breyani”, and for leaving us some! We are only on day 6 and we already have our favourite comfort food. We are definitely going to have to find the source of this heavenly stuff! Race crew????? The weather forecast was accurate in terms of the change in wind direction, however, not so accurate regarding the speed. ... Read more

Return Crew Day 5 - 12 February 2020 By Cam Wow, just like that we are 5 days into our trip and are rapidly approaching one week. We've been hoping the wind would change direction in the past 24 hours. Due to the confused sea state and the changing wind direction the swell is huge with winds up to 40 knots! We have some good news though; it seems at exactly 18:35 the wind direction will change. This will enable us to head ... Read more

Return Crew Day 4 - 11 February 2020 By Cameron There are still some sleepers around the boat during the day but besides that, we had a pretty interesting dinner. We had some pasta with meatballs sauce and some tinned meat balls. The meatballs were quite something - I thought they tasted like burnt rubber, but who knows! The last 24 hours have been quite unpredictable to say the least. The weather has been challenging as we have been close hauled trying ... Read more