Date: Tuesday 11 december
Position : 7th, 576 miles behind the race leader
Good morning from ROXY!
The first half of the night was beautiful sailing, the wind was relatively stable and Roxy trickle along nicely, with only a couple of calm patches. Now it is a different matter, as the wind is decreasing and we are slipping along much slower. Looking at my track on Maxsea, we have just written an almost perfect "S"!!! Quite proud of my achievement on writing the first letter of my name, it is a little disconcerting however and I would prefer not to do any more letters!!
The reason for the zig-zag is that what little wind there is is very shifty and I have to choose the best course for each moment, trying to get the best VMG North as possible (as our "exit" from the calms is to the North.) This is painstaking work and I am on my toes to tack, change sail, keel, stacking.... whatever necessary to keep going forward! Luckily I managed an accumualtion of nearly 5 hours sleep at the beginning of the night (a whopper!!!) so I am not too knackered, but if it continues like this all day it's going to be hard. On a slightly different subject, my flying fish macscot is still with me. "Godfrey" is the big fish with the very surprised expression that landed a few days ago on ROXY. For some reason, I couldn't throw him overboard and he has been keeping watch in the cockpit for me, with his big mouth, and one wing outstretched as ever! I have now become a bit attatched to Godfrey and it's going to be hard to get rid of him!
Sam Davies
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