30.11. The heat is on

We are starting to feel the tropical heat. It is extremely hot in the constant sunshine on the deck and even worse inside the boat. The Finnish saying:”Hiki laiskan syödessä”- or “a lazy man sweats when eating” - is more than true. You sweat from just lying on your bed, which makes it difficult to sleep. Correct wear for the night watch is T-shirt and shorts. My favorite time of the day is late afternoon when the sun is behind the sails and you can lay in their shadow on the deck.

Today’s result was 192 miles - a slight disappointment. 200 miles has become a milestone we want to achieve. Also our push to reach our competitors was not as successful as we had hoped for. We lost another two miles to the overall leader and six miles to the boat on the second place. On the positive side, our leader position in our own class is getting stronger and stronger. With the race intensifying and the time for choosing the final tactics approaching the debate about the right tactics and strategy is sometimes getting heated.

This is only among us Finns, of course. Our captain is as calm as ever.

When I told a friend of mine before the race who were going to be in the crew, his immediate comment was that there are too many leaders - who will do the real work? And here we are: everyone has their opinion about the right tactics - and in the meantime, we are not able to drive fast enough to reach the competition. Today we had a two hours discussion about whether to jibe now and head southwest to get closer to the competitors - or to keep the current course to northwest and wait for a possible change in wind. This time the debate was solved by shifting wind and we made our first jibe in three days. We are now heading southwest closer to our competitors, and most importantly directly towards St. Lucia. At dinner it was time for festivities: Andrea's name day - another good reason to celebrate.

Hannu