Early this morning after a short flight Guppy was back in her natural element,the water. I would like to thank the Royal Cape Yacht Club’s shipyard for picking up the costs of lifting Guppy out of the water, bringing her back in and all the great help. She is now lying at her berth again with the familiar sound of the waves and swaying gently in the wind. I have spend the past two days working hard making her look like new but now I can feel safe heading out towards they sout atlantic. I have already stocked up on food ,filling the fresh water tanks won’t be a problem and the mess in the cabin won’t be that much of a deal either. So it looks like I can slow down my pace for the coming days and take the time to have a closer look at the Volvo Ocean Race boats. The start of the second leg is getting closer. Today I was aboard ‘Groupama’ and I learnt that even though all the race boats look pretty much the same they still are very different from each other. It was interesting to see all the little different details on each boat,and of course the crew hopes that that makes there boat the fastest. I am back on Guppy now and the wind just started blowing strongly again. It can change in a matter of minutes here. Today we’ve had calms a few times in between stronger winds and now again it’s blowing at 25 knots over the marina. This is the perfect weather to enjoy a hot chocolate inside the cabin since it is not too warm over here – actually, even with a pullover and my sailing jacket on I am freezing! I won’t even mention the water temperature…

Laura