A little hot and steamy is the forecast for today and the not too distant future. But, at least we have some breeze! And a big time drag race with the Dragons and Delta Lloyd. Which of us gets in and out of the squall clouds best is the winner in each mini race that lasts exactly three hours long. That is the time that we get the position reports and either have something to hang our hat on, or get mad and try to make up for lost ground.
As this leg has progressed, the rich have clearly gotten richer; I give Tel Blue credit, because they chose a path through the doldrums that none of the rest of us saw. Got through and launched. Ericsson 4 just got ahead of the huge calms and gained on us. Not much we could do but watch and try to win the race that we can win. And that is the race against DL and the Dragons. It will come down to the last little bit of the race, because with less than 400 miles to go, it is clear that the final 50 -100 miles will be a major crap shoot again with little breeze. Oh well, just have to get ready, because there isn't much we can do about it.
Aboard we have some interesting findings that the heat or the water or something is bringing out. Really vivid dreaming! Shannon (Shannon Falcone/ANT) was screaming in his sleep the other day so loud that it sounded like a wounded lamb down below. We thought he was just kidding around, but it was clear that he was having a wild dream. He finally woke up and came on deck as if he had seen a ghost. It was a wild dream and I had better not get into details to protect the innocent.
I had a wild dream about my mother for the first time that I can remember. She passed away a little over 10 years ago and it was a massive loss for our entire family as you could imagine. She creeps into my dreams from time to time, but not for a long while. Well, the other night she was back in a big way. And as always, in my dream she was trying to do what was right for her sons.
Finally, I must admit that over the last 48 hours both our race and the potential for pirates' intervention have taken the back seat to the terrorist attack in Mumbai. Wild times that we live in, and certainly, a very vivid reminder that we are out here as part of an entertainment show to hopefully take all of your minds away from some of the problems in the world right now. Glad to do it, but to put this all in perspective, it is a little disconcerting to be sailing into a bit of a delicate situation. We have been in touch with Volvo and security is assured and, as with the potential problems with pirates, it appears they have worked very hard at making this a great stopover.
We are all looking forward to seeing a peaceful part of India. I've never been to India before and can't wait to see a new culture. As long as we beat a couple of other boats on the way in!
Kenny
