Day 17
Today Jamaica overtook us – by 4 miles. We are so close to the finish now and to suddenly be in 5th place after everything is untenable. My initial reaction and the one I still have hours later is – 'over my dead-body'! I know most of the rest of the crew feel the same way. We take to the helm with renewed vigour, we are minutely trimming the spinnaker. We are cross examining our course and the reasons for steering it. Everyone makes sure they understand the difference between preferred course and the course we have to steer due to the wind direction. We are lucky in that the wind helps us but we are also back with the foot firmly to the floor and although none of us say it in the open, we are all aware that we had taken the pressure off sailing hard in favour of all getting into port safely. We were still safe but with a race position – and our pride - at stake we were back with a vengeance!
Come the night shift, we could see Jamaica's navigation lights off to our port side. The night was otherwise pitch-black. There is no better reason for focus than when you can physically see the opposition. We helmed our hearts out and eventually their lights disappeared into the murky depths of the night. We didn't know if we'd made ground on them or if they'd pushed further ahead and out of sight. 2am came and we went to bed feeling positive but unsure.