At 43 deg. 80. 890' W .... it's official... I am a circumnavigator! This is the line of longitude we crossed last Sunday, and is the line that passes through Rio de Janeiro, so I have now crossed every line of longitude in the world! However, this is perhaps only considered mathematically a circumnavigation as our real goal will be when we cross the finishing line and arrive into London in around 25 days time!
In terms of this leg of the race... it hasn't gone too well. The wind died 24 hours earlier than expected and it seems we lost our wind longer than the rest of the fleet, consequently we are back into 12th place, but we are hopeful with 1,200 miles to go we can crawl back up the leader board again. It has been an exciting few days, icebergs have been a potential issue, so an 'ice watch' was set up; News spread across the fleet that 'growlers' had been sited by other boats, these are icebergs that sit just below the surface, although they would be amazing to see, we thankfully didn't see any and have passed safely out of the danger zone, we also sailed not far from the site where the Titanic sank over 100 years ago.
In other news- 'Thor' (our heavy weight kite) decided to go for a swim again! Unfortunately, he didn't fare too well and we hauled him back on board with some quite serious tears. I set to work on mending him, but due to ongoing problems with the sewing machine (surprise, surprise!) this has meant he has only been partially repaired; A job to do in Derry-Londonderry it seems!
Congratulations on the technical circumnavigation, just the return to London for the full set. Must be mixed feelings doing the final ocean crossing as the end draws nigh, but I bet you won’t miss kite sewing!
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