The World is flat?

For those following us on the race viewer you will see that we have been taking a very northerly route (we are not going to the Arctic!). Matt's plan was to sail the shortest distance to San Francisco which means following 'The Great Circle Route' (on the Globe this is a large curve from Asia to America). I thought that the Earth got smaller the further north you go, however with our position dropping from 3rd to 11th. I am beginning to wonder if in fact the World is flat and not round as previously thought! This also means it is incredibly cold as we are sitting roughly 200 miles further north than the rest of the fleet, I have my many layers on and the crew know it's really cold when I resort to drinking two Hot chocolates a watch, I never drink hot drinks, but at the moment it gives me that extra bit of warmth!

I have really enjoyed this race so far, it has been tough and we were all talking the other day about how we feel we have really raced the boat, done appropriate sail changes at the right time and when a difficult job needs doing, it gets done. Our watches are very even, Derek is my watch leader, I'm assistant, we then have Claire, Stephen and our new joining crew members for leg 6: James Pettit (our medic), James Kenyon ('Beanie' the Sea cadet) and Peter Wilcock (from leg 2). On the other watch we have Kate as Watch leader, Gaurav (assistant), Ben Pate (joined as permanent RTW in Singapore), Paddy Hays (who decided to stay after volunteering to help us on the last race), Orla Reed (from Leg 2), Richard Wall and Carl Lee (new joiners). Every watch is different compared to your previous watch and it's up to us to adapt and push the boat to its best. I had one of my most thrilling experiences on the helm the other night; We were on a point of sail that we call a 'Power reach' this is where the wind is coming just forward of our beam (less than 90 degrees) and along with the waves coming from behind us we were reaching speeds of over 20 knots, which at night time when it is dark is incredible,  out of the corner of my eye I saw glowing streams in the water alongside the boat, when I looked I saw that we had some Dolphins with us, I could only see them as the phosphorescent Plankton clings to them and you can see a streaming glow behind as they power through the water, it was amazing they could keep up!

For now we are keeping a close eye on weather information which could shake up the fleet, there are a few low pressure systems around at the moment (which bring rough weather) and it's about making the most out of them when they come, I guess there will be a few more stormy seas to get through before we get to San Francisco.