Puma Leg 4 Day 2 Qingdao

Back in swing of things and it wasn't easy to do.  I learned something about stopovers.  The longer ones can be worse in terms of trying to get your head back into the game.  I can tell you that I got used to hanging out by the pool and resting with the family.  Even going with them to shopping malls!  Yes malls.  Yikes.  Going to Singapore museums and forts.  Riding a luge.  Eating tons of ice cream.  All the stuff that was on the list that my daughter Tory sent to the boat prior to us finishing the last leg from India.  And now, more than ever, I can say that I relish the stopovers.  It just seems like they go by so fast that you have to enjoy every moment before you set of to do battle again.

And we are off.  Another upwind slog.  Except this time with lots of obstacles that the pundits are preaching about I am sure.  I won't get into that now.  Let’s see how it goes..

Aboard, we have more clothing than I could imagine.  All of our bags are stuffed.  But it is so strange.  Because we are sweating at the moment, still in tropical heat.  Yet another oddity to this leg that will go in the record books.

Onboard we are in good spirits as we have jumped out to an early lead and seem to have good pace with the group.  As always, Ericsson 4 is a stone’s throw away and Telefonica Blue is not much further.  Nothing comes easy with this fleet.  Maybe some day we will just sail out to a nice lead and have a pleasant sail with no pressure.  Right.  In my dreams.

We just had one revelation onboard.  New crewmember Erle Williams realized that Shannon Falcone was born the same year that he competed in his first Whitbread Race aboard ‘Flyer’.  Not sure Erle wanted to laugh or cry when that one came out.

As always, huge thanks to the entire PUMA team and especially the shore crew for all the efforts over the last few weeks.  Boat is in great shape and we have all those troops to thank for it.

Kenny Read - skipper