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Three Days In... And Still In The Lead!

Nearly 3 days into the race, and we're still clinging onto the lead! Spirits
are high, and it looks like our plan to sail straight to Bermuda is paying
off so far. We're hoping to keep the great wind we've been enjoying!
A wholesome dinner of Fray Bentos pies from blue watch set us up for the
night, we particularly enjoyed playing raw cabbage/onion roulette.
Conditions were challenging, and mother watch more than made up for it with
an excellent cheesecake. White watch enjoyed our daily Gately family quote -
always believe in yourself! This was particularly relevant as we came onto
dog watch with some exciting sailing under the asymmetric spinnaker, the
wind hotting up and nervous laughter all round. We were flying along (11.5
knots!) in the right direction, but as sunset approached the decision was
made to bring the spinnaker down overnight. Fortunately the spinnaker
agreed, and as red watch took up drop stations (and as soon as Sarah handed
the helm over to Chris, the mate) it decided to come down of its own
accord. Unfortunately, the (7mm diameter) metal ring in the head of the sail
had snapped. Chris quickly returned the helm to Sarah's safe hands and we
safely recovered the kite from the water with no damage. Some wet wooling
from a tired mother watch followed, and the head has now been fixed with
some dyneema (our dyneema preventer is getting shorter and shorter as we use
it for essential repairs!). We're looking forward to hoisting it again to
see if Lois' stitching holds fast!
A busy and sweaty mother watch for white watch today, including some heroic
heads (toilet) pump fixing from Alexa. There was a fair amount of
de-clogging before she could grease and reassemble. The deck watches have
enjoyed some beautiful sunny sailing under the symmetric spinnaker today,
and everyone is currently enjoying the salt water hose on deck for a much
needed first shower since Gran Canaria!

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