As you may have read, due to poor wind we have succumbed to twelfth place.  A result no one can be disappointed in given the circumstances in which we left the fleet.  We are now motor-sailing to Airlie at a steady 8.5 knots and expect to arrive some time before 11am local time.

Due to the relatively short stopover before the 49 day passage to China via
Vietnam, and the strict regulations around water polution in and around
Airlie, we are getting much of our deep clean done overnight.  I have been
given the honour (chore?) of the clipboard and to-do list and have to coerce the crew into ticking things off.  The incentive of course is that it is 20 -25 degrees by night and at least 10 degrees warmer by day.  Starboard watch are up first up on the 2000-0200 watch.  Their task list includes a mix of cleaning and maintenance as follows:

– yankee 3 (lube hanks, replace missing hank pulls, mark the flakes on the
sail [this will prevent many a deck debacle)
–  replace the spectra doughnut on the clew of the code 1
–  clean the starboard saloon area including the boards and bilges
–  Wipe down and anti-bac the surfaces of the port saloon area
–  clean the starboard side wet locker (the site of my incident)
…

That should leave us, port Watch, with a similarly enthrawling list to
acomplish before breakfast.  I hope my coordination role goes somewhat
better than my seamstress role earlier.  Greg tried to teach me how to use
Cynthia our sewing machine.  Even Greg who has been trained to within an inch of his life to never give up gave up. Amy, Danielle you would have been ashamed.

Then its all hands to finish bits off before Missi sparkles her way into
port to what we hope will be a warm (literally and figuratively) welcome
from the other crews and bystanders.  No doubt Gav will have a media flock as he always does (the first hearing impaired person to circumnavigate the globe and save a life while doing so).  Thankfully my ribs finished Clippers attraction to me.

Whilst I can’t vocalise it for fear of people taking things easy, my
intention is to have the boat finished in time for a late lunch laced with
the champagne.   I think there is no more fitting way to mark the end of my journey sailing half way around the world (and the new year given my last attempt at that was a sober, morphine filled affair).

Until land.

Lot of love to all xxxx