Race 1 - Day 4

Hello everybody!

Since the last blog quite a lot has happened onboard Zhuhai.

The weather has ranged from bright sunshine and a crisp 15-20 knot breeze, propelling us in mostly the right direction, escorted by dolphins and pilot whales, to 40 plus knots in driving rain, blasting us in very much the opposite way to Puerto Sherry.

As a result of this, we have had the opportunity now to take all of our new sails out for a test at one point or another, even our storm tri-sail came out from deep storage in the sail locker for a little jolly on the deck at one point by mistake!

The crew have been spectacular in dealing with demands of racing and given that the race is still only a few days in, the standard of sailing has been very impressive.

Ahead of us lies what looks like more quite tricky sailing. Strong 25+ knot headwinds, followed by little to no wind in places mean that there is still a lot more that can happen before this race is over.

Everybody is getting into their stride nicely onboard and I'm excited to see what the next few days bring. Currently we are trying desperately to cut inside Qingdao as we approach the next virtual mark and maintain a lead on a very determined Washington, DC boat which just seems to keep on popping up out of nowhere on us.

Should probably get back to it now!

All the best from the crew, Mike our AQP and myself!