The soft creaking of the joints, the faint hiss of the waves and the warming sun woke me from my nap today. With us being firmly entrenched in our shifts, I got off shift at 6 am this morning and was desperate for a good nap. Lying down at 6:30am as the sun was just beginning to show itself above the eastern horizon, it did not take me long to find sleep. Waking up this morning (at 10am) I was welcomed by the sight of Hugh building a wonderful breakfast of organic granola and fresh fruit. Ryan up on the helm, in the freshening breeze.

Standard morning greetings: “What’s up boys?”, Standard morning response: “Not much, how was the sleep?” as I slowly stuck my head out of the companionway to see what the sea was doing. We had been waiting for some good wind as Ryan and Hugh had been itching to put up the spinnaker and really get Khulula moving. We only just finished splicing all the lines kindly send to us by New England Ropes and the wind looked perfect for it.

After a cup of tea and morning weather reports, we got ready. I had no idea how this all worked so was just placed in positions and given jobs. Great by me! After one aborted attempt, we got the spinnaker up and immediately Khulula responded by given us some of the best boat speeds we have seen all trip so far.

So today has been spend with Ryan or Hugh at the helm explaining how to correctly helm a spinnaker while I study the wind direction and sail location.

The motion of the sea is starting to get to my stomach so I am going to finish this quickly. My motion sickness is getting better but a while below with the heat and motion slowly gets to a guy.