The day started with a bang as the two racing yachts, Te Kaihōpara and Silver Fern, barely had a few nautical miles between them. Much of the day was spent searching for some ever-elusive wind, admiring dolphins pods and listening to some classic french jazz music, as the crew geared up for a bumpy night ahead. Turning around Cape Runaway would prove to be quite a task as the weather and the sea state was poised to take an interesting turn as the moonlight approached.

Around mid-day, Kester decided to try his luck with Te Kaihōpara’s ye’ ole fishing rod. The fish he did manage to catch, wriggled free off the hook towards freedom before he could reel it in. The crowd that had gathered to take pictures with the catch quickly dispersed in disappointment. Within ten minutes, Kester shouted that he had another catch. Te Kaihōpara and I wondered if we had a ‘the-boy-who-cried-wolf’ situation as Kester surprised everyone with quite a respectably sized fish. His euphoria as the yacht’s only successful fisherman lasted only about ten minutes as young Daniel, trying his luck with a fishing rod for the first time, caught a massive tuna!

Wind gusts over thirty knots were countered confidently by Te Kaihōpara as the crew had prepared her sails for the night well in advance. I felt proud of Te Kaihōpara and her crew, as we sailed through the frantic weather around Cape Runaway, dodged some fishing vessels (not picked up on AIS of course), ate some delicious Spag-bowl and sang along with some Irish sea shanties. Kester accused the previous watch of waking him up late for his watch, so obviously he was woken up 45 minutes early (lovingly of course) for his next one.

- Arjun Thimmaya, Chief Mate, Te Kaihōpara