At 0500 today boat time, 2100 UTC, this race finally ended. I can't even
say "we finished the race" as it was just a matter of the clock running
out. We almost certainly finished in seventh place, which isn't too bad,
especially considering our kite wrap. We were in sixth at the time and
dropped to eighth by the time we'd sorted it out. But we managed to
overtake Ichorcoal to get back to seventh and seemed to be closing on Da
Nang (the boat), but I'm perfectly happy not to have had the time to claw
back another spot and instead finally be heading to Da Nang (the city).
We're about 48 hours away, with wind expected to build a bit and remain
from a favorable direction and the motor to help us now if necessary.
This was always going to be a tough race, very long and through patience-
testing if not particularly physically demanding conditions. It was
aggravated by crew issues and the messing around from the race organisers.
But it definitely had its positives as well, particularly some long
stretches of excellent trade wind sailing and some nice, smaller moments
with some of the people in the team. And personally, I feel like I've had
an opportunity to step into the role of "experienced crew" rather than "new
guy", and my sailing skills have supported that, as has my confidence in
them.
And I read that Trump and Sanders won the New Hampshire primaries, so maybe
being stuck out at sea isn't such a bad place to be.
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