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Quite a few stories to tell from the past few days…

First of all, we have been ranking 2nd for the past 40 hours! Great and
yet stressful feeling, as the boat we have left behind is only 2 miles
away. We really are putting quite a bit of effort to keep top trim, top
helming and top speed… Crossing fingers that we'll be able to maintain
this podium place for the last couple of days

Another hit event was crossing the equator! Well, I'm officially a more
mature sailor, now that I have checked this important milestone in a
sailors' life?? (I wish it was this easy) The crossing took place on the
12th of October at 12:50 AM. So much so for the stereotyped equator
crossings under light winds, hot weather, smooth seas, leveled boat and
a bright daytime. We crossed the equator at night time, under 15-20
knots of upwind breeze, cool weather, boat healing to 35-40 degrees, but
no less fun. We skipped the weird ritual of covering the first time
crossers in remaining food, and every crew member has been thankful for
that decision (we had a dense feeling that Neptune preferred a cleaner
crew on deck? ). However, we did have a toast, thanking Neptune for the
awesome weather conditions and smooth seas, than had a few more toasts
to our skipper's touching speech, to the skipper, to our performance… We
speared "Neptune's share" of drink and presented him a glass of 10 year
old Single Malt Whisky (Benromach, for those who wonder) as well. Well,
the hour of the crossing was the only time the boat was not a
"dry-boat". We had some music on, and glow sticks to top up the fun.
There was one ritual that we did not miss out though, some of the crew
DID dress up for the event, meaning as silly clothes on stage as would
be for a hen/stag night. Two gents dressed up in teenage girl beach
clothes, another in ballerina costume (that was a hit one), a girl
dressed up like a Captain Jack Sparrow, with the proper make up on as
well, and finally I, wearing a belly dancing skirt! It was cheersome,
stupidly funny, and a good top up to morale

The other news, is that we have less than 4 days to go to reach Rio!
We're officially close to South America mainland! At the dawn of our
first month of racing (13th September to October), it's exciting to be
slightly ahead of the schedule, and among the leading boats. Awsome!

Finally, another high point came in the morning; finally some touches of
excitement and a new experience in my helming. I was steering at 5:30
AM, through a pretty dark night, when we spotted that we were
approaching a big heavy dark cloud. By the time we could have half the
crew down to wear some waterprooves, it started pouring as strong as a
shower, and the wind speed boosted from 8-9 knots to 20+ knots in less
than a minute. Being on the helm through a squall was definetly good
fun, and gave me a bit of adrenalin rush (as well as soaked wet
clothes). I spent the rest of the morning at the pulpit, calling for
head-sail trim as the wind was continuously changing direction, getting
further soaked, but enjoying the beautiful, clean, clear sunrise from
the sea, the new chill of the morning. Still, calling off the watch,
getting some dry clothes on were releaving moments. Great great times

We also had a funny moment in the morning, we saw a ship approaching,
which was heading to pass by us by a good 5 miles. Well, they definetly
were curious about what on earth was a 68 foot sailing boat doing in the
middle of no-where, they changed course, and passed about a mile from
us. We could see a bunch of crew lined up at the aft. Imagine what they
were thinking? I guess we were reported in their log book as the event
of the day? Waving greeting in the middle of the ocean was a moment of
humanity… Considering that we have not been seeing more than specs of
ships in the ocean for so long, having a ship so close by, seeing other
human beings was as interesting to us as seeing dolphins (or maybe a
little less, dolphins are more interesting, but well, you get the point)

That's the news from the past few days
Take care & keep an eye on me…