Message From nicole

Although a number of us now have more than 9000 miles of ocean racing under our belts, we were all still a bit apprehensive about the wilds of the Southern Ocean that lay ahead when leaving Durban. Although we got off to a good start, soon after the winds got up and we were faced with a tough few days of strong winds and large waves crashing over the decks, dousing us all. Everyone had to dig deep as we had no idea whether we were facing 3 weeks of this, with the cold and swell getting worse and worse. Luckily the wind dropped off and we have had a few days of great sailing with decent winds and the sun shining. Now though we have the opposite problem and are stuck in a wind hole barely moving, which is often much harder to cope with! We have had 6 new people join us for this leg and although it is tough on board with so many people, it is great to have some new people to talk to and different dynamics.