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| Magic & Misery That Is New Year 2008! |
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| Written by Lin & Rachel at sea | |
| Tuesday, 01 January 2008 | |
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This New Year will certainly be one to remember and unfortunately not all for good reasons. The waves and wind have been so tiring for us that it has seen us both break down in tears at different stages through the day and night. We’re both exhausted from constant fighting to keep the boat pointing in the right direction and when you get hit with yet another huge wave, soaking you from head to toe, you eventually break.
Don’t worry though, we’re tough cookies as you all know and we bounce back from these moments and live to fight another day. Our reward for this was amazing too. Today while Rachel was taking a nap, Lin saw a huge brown thing in the water right next to the boat and instantly thought ‘what is that and am I going to hit it?’ Then suddenly realized it wasn’t just an object but a living being looking right at us – it was a whale. A quick call to Rachel to make sure she didn’t miss this moment and she was up like a shot with camera in hand. We’re sure there were at least 2 of them and they stayed with us for nearly an hour. It was so strange to think that such a huge animal can be as curious about us as we are about them. We both agreed this was the most magical moment of the journey so far and we feel so privileged to have witnessed them in the wild. Unfortunately, we’ll need to do some editing to get the best of the shots we did manage to get. We also found out our tracking beacon hasn’t been transmitting as it should so we changed the fuse and have now had it confirmed that Race HQ have received two positions since then so hopefully you should be able to see the progress updated again soon. Tony did let us know that we have now done 959nm from the start which we’re really pleased with. We’re hoping for the half way mark by Lin’s birthday on the 7th January. The weather has been really bad for the past week now and we’ve only had one day of sunshine in all that time. This inevitably leaves us with very little power (same old story then) and more frustration as we can’t run the water maker until we get the batteries charged up. Fingers crossed we get some good weather soon or we’ll either have to break into emergency ballast water or to dismantle the water maker so we can manually make it – neither of which is desirable. Thank you to all those who sent us Happy New Year messages, our thoughts were with you all – albeit a little green with envy – knowing you were all drinking lots in our honour! Happy New Year to you all. Lots of Love, Lin & Rachel |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 January 2008 ) |