Home stretch- 400 miles to go

We have just over 400 miles to go to the finish line in Punta del Este, the permanent cloud cover of the past few days has broken up during the night and i stood my watch in the cockpit as a magnificent sunrise brought summer to our world. Since we left the icy weather of the high latitudes it has been remarkable to watch the temperature rise very fast as we sailed north. Water temperature is now at nearly 20 degrees and today I’m sure we can get rid of all our base and mid layers and finally sport some shorts and t-shirts. It is amazing in just few days to go from a coastline of snow capped cliffs in Tierra del Fuego to a beautiful summer day, i’m sure on land it must be very very hot.

Apart from this magnificent day we cant say we have been particularly lucky with the winds, first we had lots of headwinds and now that the wind has come round we are in lightish airs without our masthead spinnaker trying to the best we can and creep forward a mile at a time toward this holy image of a proper rare south american steak and the holiest of holy grails, a pint of beer.

The job list in punta is not dramatic, sailing a little more conservatively than in previous legs paid off, we have the A2 spinnaker to repair, a faulty wind instrument, some minor wear and tear repairs to mainsail, staysail and code zero, some haliards to replace, and other maintenance jobs but considering this was the mother of all legs I am happy we didnt trash the boat and i really need to thank those who have sent further donations to the racing funds through www.marconannini.com/help which definitely help easing the pain.

We expect to finish on sunday, exactly 5 weeks since we left Wellington. The anticipation is high, i really really want to get there but whilst we are sailing I may as well enjoy the nice weather, it is time for a shower on deck, some clean pants, a shave and all the things that can make me feel human again after all that time in the south.

Posted by: firstclass