Race 13, Day 10 – Skipper report from the Yacht Club Punta del Este

Hello friends,

We are currently flying along with our spinnaker, waiting for the wind to pick up. Everything is ready, briefed, adrenaline pumped, helmsmen prepared, ready for a nice wind to the north. It was fantastic conditions, we sailed well, everyone took the helm and enjoyed the champagne sailing. Tonight is the first night without stars, so it is harder for the helm and not as nice as the nights before when the Milky Way showed its beauty. We forget to look at the stars and it is so important, it makes you feel small and insignificant (in a good way), makes you dream awake. The temperature is still pleasant, we don’t have many layers of clothes on and we are already at 47 degrees latitude. I love it. The crew is having a great leg, everyone is in love with the Atlantic, the RTW’ers are showing their skills and sharing their knowledge with the leggers who are still learning the tricks and getting deep into it. We had no problems, Stephane and Angus worked on the steering and head pumps, Laura, Mac and Lucia sewed a few small holes in the Code 2, the boat is clean and doesn’t smell very much either, life is good. We are looking forward to the coming weather as it will give us opportunities to close more to the leaders. We are following the Euros and the Copa America closely and I think/wish Uruguay wins our 16th cup, I still remember when we won the 15th. Tomorrow we play Brazil, so if we win I’ll be nice to Laura, if not she’ll be making heads all day; in the semi-final we’ll face Colombia (sorry parceros!) and the final will be against Argentina: a game we’ll watch with Nico in Scotland. Not much more happening here, Oban will be great for us because when small towns are the host port the atmosphere is great at the Clipper Race.

A big hug to all of you, RTW, we hope you have a great weekend, get going! Vamos Crew! Vamos Punta!

Nano, Angus and the Punta Riders