A bad 24 hours

Sadly it's not been a very good day on baord Derry which resulted in us
dropping to 4th place and out of the podium places. NY went into their stealth
mode (24 hour period "off radar") but we were largely unconcerned. They had
proved unable to outpace us in the previous 3 weeks, the wind files suggested
light winds to the south, and given our more northerly position they would only
drop further behind by coming up to our level. So nothing had changed - keep
sailing as we were and avoid serious equipment failure and third place was ours.
Just as our 12am-4am watch was finishing, our steering gear, for the second time
in the race, failed. What followed was a slightly frantic but highly
"professional" 45 minutes of rigging the emergency tiller, getting the sails
under control and fixing the problem. OK, we had lost about 3 miles in the
period but it was far from a disater. Indeed we opened and polished off a bottle
of Jameson to celebrate a job well done.

The next morning however we faced a bigger problem and one that was out of our
control - the windhole predicted down south had popped up north instead and we
sailed right into it - the even bigger sucker punch was that if NY had gone
south in stealth mode they would now miss the wind hole and sail into strong and
favourable winds. We spent a hugely frustrating 8 hours bobbing around at about
4 knots, and when NY came out of stealth at 8pm yesterday the updates confirmed
the worst - we were now 20 miles behind. It was a flyer for NY to go south - all
the data we had suggested it was the wrong move but in 4th place you have
nothing to lose - get it wrong and you might come 5th/6th, but get it right and
you're on the podium. And so it worked out - better lucky than smart as they
say.

The really interesting thing has been the reaction on board. Probably more than
half the crew didn't really care - the lure of land luxuries just 2 days away
overcame any disappointment at losing 3rd place. That doesn't make them wrong
at all - people come on this adventure for many different reasons - to race, the
expereince, to learn etc etc and if the race itself is low down on your
priorities then nothing has really changed. A few of us were disappointed but
understood the nature of the lost place - we hadn't done anything wrong, were a
little unlucky while NY got very lucky. It hasn't changed how well we've done so
far nor the fact that anyone on board would have gladly taken 4th place when
we'd just learnt about the 1 ton extra of water we'd be carrying way back in
Qingdao. I'm reluctant to blame it all on luck but there isn't a lot we would
have changed about our tactical decisions or how we've raced. Sadly the person
to have taken it worst has been the skipper. Now I do understand that as a
professional skipper he is under different pressures than we the crew, but I
hope he does not now overturn the crew approach which has served us so well thus
far and risk destroying the tremendous atmosphere on board. Worst case there is
just 48 hours to go so we can survive anything, and either way the fun and
morale on our watch remains as high as ever. 
Thoughts now turn to all the land luxuries awaiting us in San Fran. I worked out
this morning that I only have to get dressed 5 more times (the hardest part of
every watch) before we arrive. Sleeping in a flat bed and seeing Helen (in no
particular order of course!) are the 2 things I am looking forward to most. In
the meantime we'll sail as hard as we can on this spectacular adventure and hope
for NY to mess up.