Josh and I joined four fantastic Noumea based Frenchmen aboard a Young 11 called Route 66 for the Auckland Noumea Race, and what a race it turned out to be.

We sailed into the wind for 8 straight days, through two storms, seeing 5 to 10 metre waves and 55 knots of wind. The yacht took on a lot of water, at one time when I came off watch and snuggled up on a jib on the saloon floor all I could hear was water, I got up, pulled the sails off the floor and realised I had actually been submerged in a foot of water, it then took me some time and approximately 19 large buckets to bail it out!

There are many great stories from this race, which I will leave for another time, but I will say that upon arriving into the lagoon in New Caledonia being aboard a local yacht was a real buzz as one, then two and in the end six vessels came out to follow us in the ten miles. It truly was magical, very little wind, everyone really comcentrating, me down below foot pumping the last of the water off the boat to rid some weight and all the hors blowing, kids singing in French,, great, Thanks team.

I’ll leave you with a quick snippet somewhere between Auckland and Noumea, approximately four days in.