Onboard CAMPER: A tough day at the office

The last day onboard CAMPER has been a relatively tough one.

From having led the fleet out of the Med, and working extremely hard to stay ahead in such light and fickle winds yesterday, to making the big decision to head west only to discover we were beaten to that call by both Telephonica and Puma and are now some 30 odd mile astern of them. Groupama seem to be sticking to their guns and are continuing to crawl south, which is the shorter route but seemingly with less wind.

As Stu Bannatyne explains, “the first half of the first leg of this race is, traditionally,  nothing like what we are experiencing now. It’s been some awkward sailing and some difficult decisions to be made.”

This being the 6th time Stu has done this race he would have a pretty good idea of what normal is, and it seems this weather pattern we are facing is anything but. So with abnormality generally come uncertainty- and nobody likes uncertain times…

You get a sense on board that nobody likes not being in the lead one single bit. But with that bitter taste of lost miles, has emerged that steely determination to win them back.

Everyone is hanging off each updated positional and weather report, taking in the update, barely a word spoken, just back to the job of inching back the miles bit by bit. And the knowledge that this is a long leg with a long way to go and I am sure won’t be the only tough day onboard before we get to Cape Town.

But perhaps the best thing about the tough day is the fact that everyone is still smiling and all still giving each other grief purely for the entertainment of everyone around them.

HAMISH