Welcome to Scottie – joining us for this race. Now Scottie is a Kiwi, so the crew are expecting a new extensive yachting vocabulary if Brad’s Aussie terms are anything to go by. The international crew now includes Americans; Canadians; Brit/Bermudian; Italian; and our two Antipodeans.

Today was a full work day – 6 jibs are now battened, race packed, and loaded aboard. The mainsail was bent on after a couple of hours hard work in the sun; and the head has been taken apart a dozen times in an effort to make it work.

Crew continue to arrive as they escape the storm in Canada. Cold beers are waiting for them.

 

 

The work has started to remove the moth balls and empty the storage containers as we put the boat back together for racing. Everything on the boat wants to go into storage, and everything in storage wants to go on the boat – or that’s the way it seems. Crew are being taken out of storage as well, dusting off race gear and looking at their harnesses with puzzlement. 

The first sail is due this afternoon, and then 4 days of training and set up for the boat ahead of the Monday start. We’re berthed next to Kuka, an Italian Cookson 50 – will have a sistership to race with. They won the transatlantic race and will be stiff competition for us – all good.

Yesterdays highlight was fixing the head. It’s a glamorous sport.