Well here we are...
It's cold, bumpy, I'm miserable and the boat feels as though it is falling apart around me- although of course its not. This is the Volvo as I expected.
These are hard yards for me aboard il mostro. Ugh...how I wish I could go back and do Cape Town again. Two weeks, less in fact, is not enough time to enjoy such a brilliant city and country. I can definitely say that I didn't take advantage of all that it has to offer- apologies to those who were there to support me.
Enough whining, Leg 2, lets kick some ass as they say. I say that with full realization that success or failure in the race is out of my hands- my job and the other 7 media crew members on each boat is to record the action as it happens, win or lose.
During the stay in Cape Town, we had chance to check out all of the collective media that has been created by the teams, including the land-lubbers. I thought the TV shows were great and am blown away by all the great images, video and writing that is coming off the boats. Congratulations to Guy on E4 for a well deserved win in the VOR Leg 1 media competition, and to Sander on Delta Lloyd for his nomination for the same prize, it's going to be a tough competition to the finish.
Talking about tough, the leg so far has been just that. Conditions have not let up since we started and that is a good thing so far as the race and our speedy arrival in Kochi are concerned. It has also been tough with all the repairs going on aboard the yacht. Casey Smith, who is the boat captain of il mostro, has done a brilliant job of keeping us in the race, and his efforts and skill means that we will probably make it to India, maybe even win, though we will probably all die of some horrible lung condition. The boat was full of carbon dust for a while there. All in a days work for this crew. The sailing conditions have been very tough and the crew has currently turned into what I lovingly call "sailing robots." Sail-Sleep-Eat...repeat.
I'm writing this blog whilst I upload some video that we shot on the boat regarding the spate of pirate attacks that seem to be occurring more and more in the hot zone off the East Africa coast, an area that we seem hell bent on getting to as quick as possible...wonder what the pirates might think of our black cat...wish Jerry was here...then again, maybe not.
-Ricky
