Sad goodbyes and excited hellos

Leg 4 is finally over and we arrived safely in to Brisbane on the morning of the 9th. I say 'safely' as we had no more accidents and the fact we managed the last 24 hours with Bwian up with out something going wrong seems a huge achievement, hopefully we will be able to get some more kite action like this over this next race!

We finished our race in the early hours of the morning and then motored the next 40 miles up to Brisbane. We are berthed in an industrial area and it is also quite isolated. After breakfast we got straight on with the deep clean. That evening there was a crew get together meal along with the new joiners for the next race; John, Rachel, KC, Gaurav and Mike everyone enjoyed a 'Dark and Stormy' (Rum and ginger beer) courtesy of Derek! Luckily my Dad passed on this drink as he was breathalyzed later that night by the Police! (All clear!). It also gave us chance to say a proper goodbye to Jo and Neil who have been with us since day 1 and also Katherine and Beth.

The next morning it was time for me to start the repair on Thor who we had damaged before Sydney and for the next 2 days I have been repairing him, unsurprisingly our sewing machine has broken- AGAIN! so this will be a job to be completed when we get to Singapore So no 'unleashing Thor' for this race, not that I think we will need him as this next race we will be sailing through the Doldrums again, a thought that many of us who experienced Leg 1 are not looking forward to!

We leave tomorrow morning for a 'Le mans' start (we all stand behind the grinders with the head sails down until the start is announced) out of Brisbane and then onto extreme heat, pirate waters and cyclones!