The Swing

Leg 4 Day 2 – Back in the swing of things

I learned something about stopovers in Singapore.  The longer ones can be worse in terms of trying to get your head back in the game.  I can tell you that I got used to hanging by the pool and resting with my family.  They even got me to go with them to the mall…yes, the mall, yikes!  We spent time going to Singapore museums and forts, riding the luge on Sentosa Island, eating tons of ice cream.  This was all the stuff my daughter Tory sent to the boat prior to us finishing the last leg from India, and now more than ever I can say that I relish everything that goes with a stopover.  It just seems like it goes by so fast that you have to enjoy every moment before you set off to do battle.

And we are off.  Another upwind slog, except this time with lots of obstacles that the pundits are preaching about for sure.  I won’t get into that now…let’s see how the leg goes.

Aboard we have more clothing that I could even have imagined.  All of our bags are stuffed, but it seems so strange at this point in the race.  We are all sweating at the moment, still in to tropical heat, yet another oddity that will put this leg in the history books.

Onboard we are in good spirits as we jumped out to an early lead and seem to have good pace with the group.  As always, E4 is a stones throw away and Telefonica Blue is not much further.  Nothing comes easy with this fleet.  Maybe someday we will just sail out to a nice lead and have a pleasant sail with no pressure.  Right…in my dreams.

We just had one revelation onboard.  New crew member Erle Williams realized that Shannon Falcone was born the same year that he competed in his first Whitbread Race aboard "Flyer."  I’m not sure Erle wanted to laugh or cry when that one came out.

As always, a huge thanks to the entire PUMA team, and especially the shore crew for all the efforts over the last few weeks.  il mostro is in great shape thanks to our troops.

Kenny
Il mostro