Three hours until the start of Leg 4

With less than three hours until the start of Leg 4, the Pirates are busy with final preparations. Martin is filling in paperwork and taking newest crew member Jeremy (DB) to the dentist, Rikard is on his way to the only pharmacy in town open on a Sunday and Mark is in search of the perfect sandwich for the sailors.

The Black Pearl arrived into Wellington relatively unscathed so the sailors have had a bit of time to relax and prepare for Leg 4. All the Kiwis on board have enjoyed visiting with their families and long lost friends who have come out to support the team.

On Friday, the tables finally turned for the shore team who relished in the opportunity to watch the sailors tackle minor repairs and clean The Black Pearl. The highlight of the pitstop was watching Mike Danks instructing Paul on how to clean the team’s foul weather gear and the deck over a megaphone from the comfort of his dockside deck chair. Meanwhile Mark Reihana served up barbeque burgers and the duo even made an appearance on the national evening news!

The local Buena Vista International team welcomed us to Wellington and their costumed Pirates have entertained the children visiting the race village over the last few days, armed with great Pirate jokes and plenty of tattoos.

According to Kimo,”Wellington has turned out to be a great pitstop. The set up has given everyone a little more freedom and time to spend with each other, as well as with the other teams. No offices might well be the way ahead! In the end, I think the sailors have actually had fun working on the boats.”

The team is disappointed to set off without fellow crew member, Curtis on board, but we are all wishing him a very speedy recovery. Curtis will take a few days out to relax in NZ, before heading home and then back to Valencia to join Alinghi.

Susie and I are heading down to the boat now and the team are off the dock at 1215.

It will be a quick race to Rio – we’ll see you there.

Jennifer

Pirates of the Caribbean