Good morning! Weather conditions are still the same and, besides some trimming, we haven’t touched our sails at all. The steady north easterly breeze brought us some champagne sailing conditions and we managed to stay in first place. GREAT Britain is getting closer but, with less than40nM to the Scoring Gate, we should be able to get there ahead of them and secure the first three points of the race (fingers crossed!). Once we are through the scoring gate, we will aim for the Doldrums Corridor and a few tactical decisions are to be made: 1.What is the best course to get there to avoid the light winds the tropical wave left behind? 2.Where to enter the Doldrums Corridor.? 3.When to start the engine for the6 degree motoring corridor? 4.As the leading boat, would it be worth it to go into stealth mode, so the rest of the fleet won’t see if we have wind or not? All questions the team will discuss once we receive the latest weather update from Simon Rowell, the Clipper Race Meteorologist, later this morning. With the Doldrums Corridor, the Ocean Sprint and approximately4000nm to go, it is still a long race ahead, with plenty of tactics involved and a lot of things can happen and positions might change again. Motivation and spirits on Qingdao are high though and we will give it our best to stay ahead.‘ Fair winds and a following sea! Chris |