Race 6

Race 6 started in a blur of crew discontent, soon forgotten as the jostling for positions on the leaderboard took over. New York spent most of the race ricocheting from one end to the other; first in one schedule quickly followed by tenth in the next as we sat in a wind hole off the coast of Taiwan for 24 hours. The Taiwanese coast guard came over for a chat, suggested that they escort us out of territorial waters, and then quickly gave up on that idea when they realised that as we had less than a knot of boat speed, not only would they miss their dinners but probably also their weekend plans.... Could things get worse? Yes. Yours truly was standing trimming the medium weight kite when all of a sudden it just split in two - a stunned moment of thinking "I'm sure I shouldn't be able to see sky through the middle" was followed by an all hands on deck effort to recover the pieces. The next week was spent doing a billion and one sail changes, and picking our way through endless fleets of Chinese fishing boats, all lit up at night like little fairground attractions. Then just when we thought we'd made it, the final five miles into the finish line produced zero wind and a hellish run of fishing nets.

So, in summary we came in 7th, with a shredded spinnaker and a tired crew.. That said tho', we all felt as if we'd raced really well as a team, and if it hadn't been for the vagaries of the weather should have been placed higher, but hey, that's the whole thing about sailing. Onwards and upwards.