Our boat had a great start and were first over the line and just managed to stay ahead in light winds as we sailed around some buoys in the harbor.
After the start it was back to long distance racing and this is me hard at work at the stern of the boat..... As we made our way north we mostly had up either spinnakers or poled out headsails and managed to stay out of the way of a tropical cyclone that fortunately stayed off the northern Australia coast.
Some of the best moments for me during this race were the spectacular sunrises and sunsets. The most challenging was the heat as we made our way north. The difference during this equator crossing and our Atlantic crossing back in October was the humidity. The temperatures below sometimes reached 40C (over 100F) and trying to sleep during the day was almost impossible. Anyway I survived and probably lost some of the weight that I gained during the festive season in Fremantle.
This is a photo of our watch with Jan, Tore, Claire and Janet. Durban finished 5th and we are still one point ahead in the overall standings.
Race 6 starts tomorrow (the 27th) and we are expected to finish in Qingdao sometime in mid-February. This race will start off being very hot again but as we make our way north the temperatures are expected to drop significantly.
