Wednesday 11th – Race 3, Day 16

Today the sun came out! Today I baked my second loaf of bread ever – which we all had for breakfast. Today we have less than 48 hours to go to Cape Town and today we are still in 4th place – although we did claw a few miles back on Finland and Singapore.  Today we also hoisted our spinnaker and now we need to sail all-out to try and get on that podium. We believe we can get at least one place back and we believe we deserve it. We also want to do it for Arthur who is still blaming himself for us losing the lead. It never was his fault but he doesn't see it that way. All we need is to go a knot faster than them ‘til the end of the race. It's possible......

I have watch change-over tonight which means I'm on from 8pm to 2am and supposed to be sleeping instead of writing this!  It is just two days to go though and with the end of the leg in sight you don't want to miss anything. On deck the watch are gybing the spinnaker – a tricky maneuver which can so easily go wrong (and has done in the past).  These are the crucial stages for us. Get these right and we're still in with a chance – not of first – Cork are a long way in front now – but of third or even second place.  I'm listening to the noises of the evolution and trying to hear if everything is going ok. A huge wave just swept over the deck and down through the slightly open hatch above me. My dry leggings and socks are now soaked – the laptop escaped… just about – so once again tonight I'll be putting on wet clothes!