I’m very, very happy to be getting out of Boston! It has been great but the last week has been tough- lots of media commitments and other home team events. Right now the tension onboard is palpable, we’ve got a bit on for the rest of the race and here in Boston in front of the home crowd the whole crew is certainly feeling it. Emotions as always ran high on the dock today. Families and friends saying goodbye - the press trying to get one last sound-byte, the music and the fans, it is the same old same old, but it never gets any easier.
And then it’s time. Drop Kick Murphy's blasting out over the loudspeakers. You untie the boat and gently pull away from the dock. One last look back and its show time.
For the first hour or so the actress Salma Hayek was onboard along with our PUMA executive team and her husband. She christened the boat a little over one year ago and we consider her to be our glamorous godmother! Her husband is our “BIG” boss. He seemed to know all about the race, the team and many of our exploits. It was great to meet them especially Salma and it must have been a treat for them to get the buzz of the pre-race dock scene and departure, hopefully they all had a good time.
Boston has been a great stopover as we knew it would be. Many familiar faces made the trip to Fan Pier along with lots of new sailing fans who seemed to enjoy the day out and certainly were in awe of the VO70's as well as being entertained by our Bladerider Moth team. During the stopovers they spend the days buzzing up and down the seawall to the amazement of all. It is quite a sight as they pick up speed and seem effortlessly rise up out of the water. How long until we are racing around the world on foiling Volvo 70's?
Once again PUMA City was a rocking success. Good news is that even in an ailing economy, the store seemed to be packed every minute. Hopefully that resulted in good sales! Bring it on, it pays the wages.
The start went reasonably well and we are now sailing in thick fog on a north easterly course with the land to port and the whale exclusion zone to starboard. It is blowing about 16 knots and the seas are smooth- a nice comfy angle and a great chance to get into the swing of things again. We have begun the last BIG leg of the race, by the time we finish this eight or nine day leg and arrive in Galway, there will be only about a week of actual sailing left to do. Having said that, there are a ton of points on the table and I sense that this last part of the race will be hand to hand combat all the way to the finish in St Petersburg.
Going to go and throw the dinner on now- Lamb and Mash, there won’t be any complaints with that one.
Rick
