Message From nicole

Not too much to write about at the moment. We are doing some beautiful downwind sailing down the coast of mexico. Lovely sunny days, and clear starry nights - a bit like crusing rather than racing. Orion is still out looking after us every night, which is nice. The boat routine goes on as ever -4 hours on, 4 off, sleeping,eating, and sailing; but life on board is significantly nicer when the boat is flat, and you are not being thrown around.

Message From nicole

Santa cruz was another great stop, with a lovely yacht club looking after us. Also spent a few days in San Francisco, which was cool. Went to Alcatraz and the museum of modern art. Was great to be in a big city again, and i even managed to fit some karaoke in! We left Santa cruz a couple of days ago,and got off to a great start- first over the line and first to the first mark. We were then accompanied by a large pod of dolphins and seals as we set of down the coast (although for a while i thought the seals were some wierd deformed dolphins with no dorsal fins!). Nice to see some wildlife again. We have great weather at the moment - beautiful clear nights - though a bit cold considering we are off the coast of Mexico - nice sunny days, and some great kite action. Apparently our boat was also in the FT and is on posters in the tube - so look out for us!

Message From nicole

This last leg has been hard as our race was pretty much over halfway through when we got becalmed. & when it is cold and wet it is a little gutting knowing that the others have all arrived. we are also rapidly becoming the worst boat in the fleet with 3 last places out of the last 4, & it is hard not to become a little down. The cold weather & constant beating hasn't helped, but we should be in Santa Cruz tomorrow, & things always seem better in the bar!

Message From nicole

An odd few days. First we had no wind and flopped around for two days. Then when the wind came, it came in large amounts. so we went through all of the sails one by one as it got windier and windier; all in around 3 hours. we hanked on one sail and put it up. then it got a bit windier so we dropped that one & put up the next. then it got a little more windy so we dropped that one & put up an even smaller one. craziness!

Message From nicole

So my last upbeat blog about how we were about to take the rest of the fleet was a little off target. Since then we slipped to the back of the fleet & then got stuck in a windhole for the last day or so, & have been bobbing around whilst the others kept going. So things have kind of gone from bad to worse. The ocean is strangely beautiful though when it is all glassy instead of full of ripples & waves. The wind is picking up again now, so fingers crossed!

Message From nicole

Life on board is pretty quiet at the moment. Not too much is happening such that last nights curry night accompanied by Ravi Shanklar was some kind of highlight, & this morning i spent an hour on the bow trying to spot some crazy sea creatures! The race is going well. After a bad 12 hour period where we dropped back in the fleet, we've slowly started to move up the ranks & have 3rd placed Hull in our sights. The sun is out and its a great day for a sail.

Message From nicole

Fnally on the way to Santa Cruz (though the delay in Hawaii was great). We got off to a good start, after pulling a 360 just before the start line so that we didn't cross too early. It was then a beautiful sail for the first 10 mins, til we passed Diamond Head on the corner of Oahu and it got a little choppy. The new bucket then got well used as seasickness began to hit! But after 24 hrs of beating into strong winds, it has eased off & we are sailing along nicely in the sunshine. As the wind swung around for a while we tried to launch one of our repaired kites. It flew beautifully for about 10 secs, until in true Qingdao style the strop at the head of the sail (which the halyard holding up the sail was attached to) broke, & suddenly the sail was in the sea. So we dragged it back on board, & packed it back in the bag to rehoist, by which time the wind had moved back round on the nose.... c'est la vie<

Off to Santa Cruz

The holiday in Hawaii is sadly almost over. The rigging has been mended and is currently being checked and it looks like we will be off to California tomorrow. Its a shame as I have been enjoying myself, hanging out on the beach, practising my surfing technique and sampling a few more of the local cocktails....

Hawaii

vodka luge
my fish
the volcano eruption
surfing

Crossing the pacific

the snow
sewing the sails
crossing the international dateline
helming
arriving in Hawaii

legs 3 and 4

getting our third place flag in Fremantle
leaving Fremantle

crossing the equator for the second time
"the watch"

some piccies from the first legs

bringing the spinnaker down
crossing the equator
helming
winching
gnarly weather in the Southern Ocean

Trapped in Hawaii...

So it's tough being stuck in Hawaii.... Have done lots of cool stuff. I caught a big fish, went surfing a few times (and got up on the board), drank cocktails, toured the island. Also went on a trip to the Big Island, where the volcano is errupting. The trip was a bit "blonds on tour" as I went with another girl from the boat and we were both as dappy as each other! But it was cool, we made it there and back, and we saw the volcano errupting and the lava flowing into the sea. Emma drove the car and i did the tour guiding, which was mostly fine until I sent us down the 4WD only route by misake.... Now its back to the boat to prepare to leave, though no one yet knows when that will be! x