Well… life at 30 degrees has finally come to an end after 4 days ‘mountaineering’ and we’re now running with the wind with a spinnaker up.

It’s weird because when you sail as close into the wind as you can, you get the actual wind speed in your face plus the speed of the boat going into it, so you get whistling in the rigging, big wind noises and effects etc.

When you are sailing with the wind you are going just as fast but the wind seems a gentle breeze.

Everybody getting pretty tired now, the doldrums were two days longer than ever experienced before and now we all want a beer!!

Jo Jo put up a ‘vote for Ricardo to carry on’ on the site and some 50 people responded, 86% saying ‘yes’ …. well, it’s alright for you lot but you don’t have to do it !!

But a huge thank you to all who voted, I feel amazingly supported.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I’ve decided that I’ll stop at Rio. There’s quite a lot going on at work that I need to get back too, plus the very important face that the ‘ricardoracestorio’ website wouldn’t make sense anymore!!

We’ve just done the Ocean Sprint which means 3 points for the fastest boat between 5 degrees south and 10 degrees south, results to follow but we think we came second fastest (0 points!)

Now onto Rio. we’re currently 3rd but in a slightly better position regarding wind angle than 1 & 2, it’s a big ask but we are closing the gap, lets see 860 miles to go!!

Thanks again for all your support

Ricardo