American Joe Harris along with Roger Junet are competing in the Globe40, a multi-leg doublehanded round the world race in Class40s. Seven teams were at the beginning on June 26, with five teams now on the third leg from Mauritius to Auckland, New Zealand.
After leaving the Indian Ocean island nation on September 11th, Harris files this report from onboard GryphonSolo2 on October 15, 2022:
So we are on a very long approach to Cape Reinga (at the northern tip of New Zealand), which has been the goal since we exited the Bass Strait (bottom of Australia) a month or so ago (kidding) and have had nothing but upwind conditions the whole way. Three hundred miles to go…
This has been both mentally challenging and boring, as our predicted ETA into Auckland gets continually pushed back. Roger and I are trying to keep our motivation and sanity by downloading multiple GRIB weather files and running multiple routing scenarios on Adrena and also reading and sleeping a lot as there is nothing else to do. “Meanwhile” (as Stephen Colbert would say), my lovely wife Kim has arrived in Auckland and is touring the city by herself as we wallow our way to Auckland.
This is a strange game… like Chinese water torture… where your hopes and expectations for performance and arrival on land are constantly crushed. It takes mental and emotional stamina and perseverance to hang in and keep pushing. We are doing that and I am proud of us.
And now it is sunrise. The ominous curtain of darkness is raised… Let there be light – say Hallelujah! But as the poet Robert Frost euphemistically said… “Many miles to go before I sleep.”
While we are aware that we are existing in a small bubble or microcosm of existence here in our 40-foot boat in a large ocean on a large world, we will broadcast a “high level of importance” message when we round Cape Reinga and turn down the homestretch towards Auckland.
I can hear the sound of one hand clapping.
Source: scuttlebutt – https://www.sailingscuttlebutt.com/2022/10/17/globe40-sound-of-one-hand-clapping/
