Ericsson 4 Leg Five Day 20

Good evening from Ericsson 4.

What is up with this leg? I had envisioned us screaming along in the roaring forties and pushing hard to break our 24hr record soon after passing the first scoring gate. Instead, here we find ourselves sailing upwind in an easterly breeze and contemplating how to negotiate a tropical cyclone that lay ahead. For God’s sake, we are below 40 degrees south latitude! Give us some downwind sailing and let these Volvo 70s do what they do best.

The mood onboard of late has been a little mixed. We are all disappointed to have lost our hard earned lead and are now curiously waiting to see how the positions will settle down after the split fleet start to come together again. Sailing conditions were quite mild today with relatively flat seas, although the temperature, both water and air is rapidly dropping. The evening sky tonight was particularly attractive with no clouds, thousands of stars, and a constant loom of light to the south reminding us of our summertime, southern location.

There have been some chocolate crimes today as our daily allowance of one bar per person pulled up short. No great dramas as we could just pull out the new day bag, but for how much longer is that an option?  With all this upwind sailing it feels like our ETA will just continue to get delayed and food stocks rationed. Here’s hoping for a change to come.

Was also Nipper’s birthday today - nothing special happened - but we all shook his hand.

Other than that all good on Ericsson 4.

Ryan Godfrey - Bowman