You probably remember from the end of the last two legs that exhaustion,
physical fatigue come and smack you in the face with about two days to go.
You probably also remember that some of our hairiest or most damaging moments have been when we’ve been trying to push hard at the end of a race.  De ja vue.

Today, in an effort to catch up with Garmin, ‘we’ decided that we’d push code 2 to its limits and getting flying whilst code 3 was still in the operating theatre.  We went for the hoist and it almost instanaeously exploded.  We will now have the costly (points) expense of having to buy a new kite.  Yes mum, this is much worse damage than you witnessed in Cape Town.

This now means that unless Garmin have come up against similar challenges they will be pulling away and so will our podium place. Gutting.

That said, we are doing all we can and with the rolling waves and strong winds we’re probably making a steady 15 knots with plenty of roller coaster style surfing.  The satisfaction of just finishing our hardest leg will be immense.

After our physically most demanding watch in a while (they’ve all been pretty bad) we’re all struggling.  Even our watch leader was on the bow to try to lessen the load.  Lovely.

The list of necessities is growing.  R&R, champagne, massage, blow dry,
Christmas carols, a fluffy towel, good company, white beach, non-boat related exercise, face cleanser, moisturiser for crocodiles and SLEEP.

It would probably be tomorrow night back home that I’d throw my annual
Christmas party,  Happy Christmas all. Right now I’m really missing it/you all/the Christmas tree and Michael Buble.

Lots of love.  240 miles to Sydney and we’re counting every one.

xxx