Amer Two picks up emergency repair kit at Eclipse Island

by Sharon Ferris on 29 Nov 2001 It’s A Beautiful Day.

It all started with a kiss. No, that was my dream. It really started
with a fantastic sunrise, breakfast on the stack of sails we have on deck
and Aussie rock [Eclipse Island] in our sights. The first sighting of
something solid other than icebergs for 18 days. We were singing: “aweare
on the wind againa”.

Half an hour later we confirmed that we were going to be stopping at
Eclipse Island to pick up replacement parts. The clouds came in and our
song changed to “awe'll be tacking around the island when she comes, we'll
be tacking around the island when she comes, yeehar...a”

The sun came back out when we saw the smiles on the faces of our fantastic
shore team, Nicky Binstead and Nick Bice. They had, in 24 hours, managed
to get us a new jockey pole that was yesterday a pile of metal, a computer
part that sends and receives all our information on the boat and a new
cooker that makes freeze dried food look like food again and is cooked in
45 minutes instead of 3 hours, so our full time cook has better things to
do now.

Every racing team is only as good a their shore team and with the Nautor
Challenge Team we are very lucky to have one of the best teams there can
be. Thank you all so much.

The other sunshine was in Emma’s face when her boyfriend surprised her by
being at our pick up point. That is going to last her at least a week.
Everyone else’s smiles came when lunch was served. The pasta was finally
pasta again and not flour and water paste.

As the sun went down tonight and eight coffees later, as we have 18 days
of hot drinks and gas to use, Aussie rock disappeared out of sight.

We are Amer Sports Too, 13 girls on a mission to gain back some miles and
smiles.