Telefónica Blue Leg Two Day 6 QFB: received 20.11.08 0837 GMT
After not enough sleep and almost certainly too many coffees, I began wondering in the early hours of the morning if this whole race is some crazy psychological experiment. My mood has changed dramatically in recent hours and the reason behind it is eight small lines of data that are sent to the boat every three hours.
Each sched we receive massively defines the mood on board and it is fair to say it affects mine especially. Happy, angry, hopeful or disappointed these small rows of numbers seem to bring out all the emotions in us. Perhaps somewhere, men in white coats were watching the last race closely and decided to up the dosage from 4 times a day to eight just to see what would happen to us all! Stupid theory’s aside, I am now officially in a good mood. Finally, we are gaining on the fleet, in the next three hours I could be in a really good mood if we can take a couple of points on the boats around us in the chase to the scoring waypoint. Already I am anxiously waiting, staring at the computer screen to see how it all pans out.
The other thing that has seemed to have improved the mood on board is our turn towards the north. After our gybe last night, we are officially headed for sunnier climes. Even today, mere hours from our gybe, the sun is now out and the sky is largely free of clouds. Balaclavas have now been exchanged for smiles and sun cream. With thoughts of temperatures getting hotter, the boat inside being drier and conditions that may we suit us better, everyone on board is happy. Even the sailmaking is almost done which will allow Daryl (Daryl Wislang/NZL) and Jordi (Jordi Calafat/ESP) to return to some sort of normal routine, which doesn’t involve bouncing round inside the boat whilst operating a sewing machine. It is only poor Laurent (Laurent Pages/FRA) who is left in his bunk with his injury, but hopefully he is starting to feel better too, which might give him something to smile about too.
So all in all, things are pretty good here on Telefónica Blue. Things are certainly looking up and, with that said, I am now looking forward to the race ahead!
Cheers,
Simon Fisher – navigator
Hi There,
After not enough sleep and almost certainly too many coffees, I began wondering in the early hours of the morning if this whole race is some crazy psychological experiment. My mood has changed dramatically in recent hours and the reason behind it is eight small lines of data that are sent to the boat every three hours.
Each sched we receive massively defines the mood on board and it is fair to say it affects mine especially. Happy, angry, hopeful or disappointed these small rows of numbers seem to bring out all the emotions in us. Perhaps somewhere, men in white coats were watching the last race closely and decided to up the dosage from 4 times a day to eight just to see what would happen to us all! Stupid theory’s aside, I am now officially in a good mood. Finally, we are gaining on the fleet, in the next three hours I could be in a really good mood if we can take a couple of points on the boats around us in the chase to the scoring waypoint. Already I am anxiously waiting, staring at the computer screen to see how it all pans out.
The other thing that has seemed to have improved the mood on board is our turn towards the north. After our gybe last night, we are officially headed for sunnier climes. Even today, mere hours from our gybe, the sun is now out and the sky is largely free of clouds. Balaclavas have now been exchanged for smiles and sun cream. With thoughts of temperatures getting hotter, the boat inside being drier and conditions that may we suit us better, everyone on board is happy. Even the sailmaking is almost done which will allow Daryl (Daryl Wislang/NZL) and Jordi (Jordi Calafat/ESP) to return to some sort of normal routine, which doesn’t involve bouncing round inside the boat whilst operating a sewing machine. It is only poor Laurent (Laurent Pages/FRA) who is left in his bunk with his injury, but hopefully he is starting to feel better too, which might give him something to smile about too.
So all in all, things are pretty good here on Telefónica Blue. Things are certainly looking up and, with that said, I am now looking forward to the race ahead!
Cheers,
Simon Fisher – navigator