Last night we finally got to say goodbye to the Malacca straits as we passed by Singapore just after darkness, which wasn’t actually very dark because of the phenomenal light cast from the city and all of the surrounding ships. There was no moon, yet it was like there was the brightest moon lighting everything up.

It was hard to distinguish what lights were on land, and what lights were just a multitude of ships banked up one behind the other. I saw what I thought was a high rise building moving from left to right which turned out to be an massive ship leaving in the same direction as us. It wasn’t until I saw a giant ferris wheel that I realized I was looking at land.

Seeing all the ships we have in the last few days gives a very interesting snap shot of worldwide trade in motion, and there is certainly no shortage of it that’s for sure.

In a way the race starts again from today for CAMPER, except we are just 25 miles late for the start. Despite this it’s fair to say everyone is happy to see some open water again, although one thing that hasn’t changed is the debris and rubbish still in abundance.

Abu Dhabi is still in our sights, they are target number one to pass. We still have 1200 miles of upwind sailing to do before the finish, the forecast is for it to get pretty rough, which after the sailing we did around New Zealand last year would have to be a positive thing for the team, for me I’m not sure it sounds positive at all, but if it’s good for the team it’s good for me.

There are 2 ways to get to Sanya, the more easterly route which will take you through the Spratly Islands (of which there are over 750 of them) and has been described to me as having ‘unseen danger everywhere’ in its relatively unchartered waters but potentially more favourable current.

Or the other option- just go north straight to the Vietnam coast to work the geographical breezes that curve around there. The down side of this option is you are battling quite big current and the good old fishing nets, which research tells me in some places off the Vietnam coast can be up to 16 miles in length… that’s quite a detour- or quite a tangle.

It remains to be seen what route we will take, but it won’t be long until we do. There are pro’s and con’s to each, but it sure isn’t for me to decide.

Either way one good thing is it is going to get cooler, which is already a welcome reprieve from the sweat fest.

Oh yeah, and no matter what way we chose to go the inherent risk of piracy is still elevated. Apparently these pirates around here have guns and long knives and like to smash and grab. I’m over pirates.

Animal again mentioned he couldn’t wait to get to China.

Here’s a fact for you:

The Spratly islands contain less than four square kilometres of land area but spread over more than 425,000 square kilometres of sea.

That’s a long way to go and see your neighbour for some sugar- that is if there was actually any population.
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GOLDEN QUOTE: “ Its going to be rough and windy, and teams will have trouble in that, including us. So it will be who can manage not having much down time, not having to bear away for sail changes and keeping everything in one piece, so that should play to our hand. But at the end of the day there is still 1200 mile of upwind to go- it’s a lot of sailing.”
CHRIS NICHOLSON