Its all go down at Endeavour Quay.  40 Degrees came of of the water on Monday and since then work has begun on removing all the old tired antifouling from the bottom in preparation for a new super slick finish.  Rudders are out and Endeavour Yacht Services have begun ordering all the kit they need to bring our lovely boat up to Cat 0.  The real dirty work starts on Monday which will be great progress.  

The whole H&A team will be reunited in Hamburg this evening ready for meetings on Friday and then Daf and I are straight on a plane to Gibralter to sail the race route up to Palma.  Lets hope the sun is shining in the Med as its not been that great over here in the UK.

A big thanks to Katrina Ham and Kevin Austin for all their help this week, it really does make life for us a lot easier and of course helps us beat that never ending race against time.

More to follow soon....

Thanks to the brilliant people at Erberspächer, the good ship 40 Degrees will be fitted out with an Airtronic D4 heating system in time for the Global Ocean Race.  This will provide a huge boost in human performance as we both spent most of the Normandy Channel Race soaked and freezing and that was in May!  Our ambition is to fulfill all of our charging requirements with eco friendly power obtained from the hydrogenerator and solar panels meaning that our present heat source - the engine, will not get much action.  As 40 Degrees is wetter than a full bath tub most of the time, if we are able to dry the odd set of base layers out with our D4 system and keep the air temperature just above freezing that will help us to keep motivated and prevent us from burning endless calories shivering away whilst we try to sleep.  The efficiency of the system also means that its diesel requirements are minimal so it won't counteract our green credentials too much.

Behind the scenes at race HQ its a busy time.  We have fancy spreadsheets galore, timelines, wish lists and reams of quotes to sort through.  The next big hurdle to jump over is the Cat 0 modifications which are being planned and will hopefully be executed very soon and then the dreaded 180 degree test. Having watched Ross and Campbell field pull off such a quick time we are hoping to achieve the same as the prospect of remaining upside down for any longer than is absolutely necessary is not an attractive one for sure.

So all we need now is a title sponsor and for the countdown to race start timer to pause for a couple of weeks!  There is a lot to do, time is melting away but nothing is impossible...

The H&A Racing Team