Today we spotted land for the first time in 10 days. And then swiftly
waved it goodbye again, dropped the staysail and headed up in to the
breeze. That was our passing of Fernando de Norohna, the first of the
scoring gates in our race around the world. We were a little disappointed to end up going round in fourth place having managed to hang in there with Brasil 1 and Ericsson for so long. However, in the end they were able to convert their windward gauge into a safe forward position and we ended up locked safely behind with the two boats in our sights. It is now just a case of chasing hard and slowly grinding them down once more. With over three thousand more miles to go the race is still very much on!

For some the sight of the Island was a reminder of what people miss on the shore, for some people it was a nice cold can of Coke, and with sighting of a nice long sandy beach a few of us started to talk about going for a surf. The thing I am really starting to miss now though is variety. I just caught myself rummaging through the day bag looking for something that would satisfy my appetite. However I pulled out nothing. I certainly haven’t been going hungry but the monotony of the diet has definitely set in. As it turns out the most satisfying thing to have passed my lips today was an old salty piece of chewing gum found in my pocket - at least this tasted vaguely of something fruity!

On a more positive note however, we have made our transition into the
southern hemisphere. A special moment for Bicey, (Nick Bice) as it is the fast time back in his half of the world for three years. God only knows how excited he will get when Australia appears over the horizon!! All in all it was a quiet transition, King Neptune conspicuous by his absence.

For such a young crew it is surprising that we have all already crossed the equator so the spray glue and old freezed dried food were not to be seen as we went from north to south. However the crossing we made in June is still quite fresh in some people’s minds and still good to have a laugh about!!

Until Tomorrow,

Si Fi
(Simon Fisher – Navigator)

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