Day 18 of the Return Trip
The breeze freed up from a beat to a slightly broader fetch by backing to the North. It didn't increase much, but has held at a steady 10-15 knots.
We have been pushing desperately to get to the island before the end of today. At 4AM the breeze had backed enough for us to put our Code 0 spinnaker up - the Norwegian Blue. We were happy with the added knot to our boat-speed and a slight change of scenery in the sail department.
We can see it now. At about 9AM, the monstrous volcanic island peeked out from behind its shroud of clouds to reveal itself to us. It looks tiny on a chart, but when you're looking up at the 2km high peak from 30 miles away, it's a lot more spectacular.
People are bouncing off the walls in this boat. The excitement is overwhelming - not just to hop onto dry land for a bit, but to visit a real hidden treasure of the world. We have a shopping list for the island which so far consists of: matches, lighters and eggs. I think our needs have become fairly simple.
With the wind coming from the North, it is significantly warmer than the last week has been. Though we will still not call this warm. Speedo days are now definitely a thing of the past. Regardless, the crew have been taking to the sugar-scoop one at a time to wash hair and freshen-up so that we are (mostly) looking sharp for our arrival.
We heard that there was some good fishing to be done around here, but our first catch with our newly untangled lines was a black sea-bird. Raf and Dave reeled it in and Gina baked it into a delicious pie. I'm kidding. Raf and Dave got it in hand, removed the hook and set the guy free.
Our next update may well be from Tristan itself!
Ciao for now
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