Ciao Bella is going along like a dream this morning. The wind has managed to hold and is currently belting out 10knots from the east north east. Big Bertha is still in action (while a little reluctantly), but continues to do us proud.
Gerry and the boys finished yesterday morning. They sailed a splendid race and must be commended on the faultless execution of a superb race plan. The chances of finishing in a time which will beat them is slim, but until we cross the finish line we continue to race hard and leave the rest for the wind gods to decide.
The crew woke up to a yacht filled with the music of Mid-Atlantic FM. Our own radio station with all your favourite hits, all the time. This included some Billy Joel, Rod Stewart, and Bob Dylan. Post the waking of Bren the line up has since deteriorated, but that could be expected.
A few days prior to the wind dropping, Rick made a suggestion of ditching the food for days 21 - 24 as a form of motivation. Little gullible Michaela took him seriously, and turns out she has been smuggling zoo biscuits for in the event that it might take us over 21 days. She obviously has borne witness to our pathetic fishing skills.
Our apologies for the atrocious quality of photos. It stems from the useless email facilities which are quite a joke - think of the old Telkom dial up connection. You start the whole bbbbbbrrrrr di di di di di di di di di di, brrrng brrrrng, more terrible sounds, then the email starts to send. No sooner have you send 3/4s, that it drops the call and you need to start the whole process over again. Very frustrating. I will never again complain about AFF's bandwidth.
Hence we moved to sending pics taken off a blackberry. This puts them at a similar size to a weather forecast file. And seeing as the quality weather files were so rubbish of late, the sacrifice of that weather file bandwidth for the pleasure of our followers getting photos is definitely worthwhile.
The support that we have received in putting this campaign together has well exceeded any of our expectations. The level of hospitality received from our friends and family in Cape Town was mind-blowing. The countless dinners and braais so often helped one survive a day of bilge cleaning, engine servicing, and other related race admin. Also to the titbits of advice given to us from past C2R racing hot-shots... Priceless!
The kindness displayed by Lynn and Paul Crosland through their opening of their house to us is incomprehensible. I do think if anything, that that little Mike Crosland is really going to appreciate going back to having only one older sister to boss him around.
This boat would also never have been ready to go if it wasn’t for the hard work of people like Hans, Manuel, Little Louis, Farmer, James and Will Crockett. Customer service does not get better than that from William. Even the support from Greg 'the godfather' Dobson. You guys were amazing and without you there is no way we would be able to have pulled it all off. Farmer - your advise on the wide-brimmed hats was spot-on!
While we have spoken about those that got us through the 21 days prior to race day, it is safe to say that the countless emails and blog responses are what have got us through the past 18 days. Keep on sending please. Be it one liners or one pages, every word is cherished.
428 nautical miles to go....
From all those aboard your favourite Speedo Torpedo.
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