Day 7 – Friday 10 January 2020

By Dominic Holling

7th day into the race, one week of sailing to Rio done, and wow has it been an amazing trip so far. Having caught 2 fish, hitting a top speed of 12.5 knots, having witnessed many beautiful sunsets and sunrises and having dolphins off our bow.
Day 7 was a good day. We have made a whole roster system for cooking and cleaning and have also made meal lists to use all of our various ingredients effectively. It has all settled down now and everyone is getting used to it with it working well (Max and Nick may disagree due to their dish washing responsibilities after a particularly complex meal!).

Matt and I made bread for lunch which on a boat is really good fun although quite a lengthy task, especially as a boat’s gimbaled gas oven isn’t as efficient as your typical home oven. We have learnt that if we are to have lunch at a decent time, and not at 4:00pm, then we have to start making it at 9:00am. Our lunches are really good and it’s amazing to have freshly baked bread way out in the Ocean as the wind takes you along.

We have been making good speed, averaging about 7 knots, and everyone always knows when someone on the helm hits a 10 or 11, by the load shout. Matt’s 12.5 knots record still proudly stands as our top speed for the race so far.

In the late afternoon, as we were cruising along at a stable speed, Ewan pointed out a whale. Everyone ran on deck and was just in time to see the amazing sight of a whale breaching off our beam. It’s moments like this – witnessing these amazing sights that we really appreciate nature and they are one of the reasons why we take on such amazing adventures as this.

Since we reeled in our majestic tuna we have had nothing but that for our meals. For dinner, Matt and Daniel cooked up chakalaka and smash with some tasty tuna steaks as they were on cooking duty.

The wind picked up a bit in the night and we were able to sail nice and swiftly. The night watch was very peaceful and It’s so beautiful when it’s just the two of you on deck on such a tiny vessel in a massive ocean in the arms of nature. You respect and appreciate the beauty of the thousands of stars shining down, the bright full moon and the breaking swell carrying us into the night.

Sunrise has been later and later each day as we travel further west, which has been very nice for Ewan and myself as shift partners but has made it a whole lot harder to wake the others up for their watch and convince them that it is in fact still dark at 6 in the morning.