The third leg is 6,200 miles, from Mauritius to Auckland, New Zealand. Since we have to go the long way around, heading east after heading south to catch the westerly winds of the South Indian Ocean, it will be a voyage of 7,000 miles.
In this leg, I(Suzuki) am sailing with Luca Rosetti, who is a 26-year-old Italian sailor. He participated in the Mini Transat 2019(the solo sailing race across Atlantic), and we have known each other since then. He is a shy but very serious and kind partner.

I usually feel a little nervous on the first day of a race. That feeling was stronger because there would be a tough race over 30 days ahead of me. However, I shake off the blues and felt empowered while departing in Mauritius under clear blue skies on September 11. All the teams headed south.

We went south for about a week while gradually heading east. The temperature in Mauritius was 25°C, but it dropped below 10°C at night. It was very cold even the hatch was closed. There was not any heater in the boat. It was much worse outside in a wind blowing about 15 m/s. Also, I was surprised at the large swells, of which shapes looking like rolling maintains.

Diomedea albatrus were flying around our boat. They followed us probably because they mistook us for a fishing boat. I felt sorry that we did not have any fish for them. However, it was amazing to see birds in such a place.

We have been sailing in cold weather at around 40 degrees south latitude for a week. Then, we started to head north to the waypoint in Western Australia, where is set for safety. We could reach the destination sooner if we kept sailing at high latitudes. However, we did not choose that route because there was no other team coming to that area except us. It means that nobody could save us when we are in danger.

The temperature rose as we moved forward. I was able to refresh myself by taking off my jacket and putting on dry clothes.

Now, we are 50 miles from Eclipse Island. We will pass the waypoint tonight.
Time zones are changing as we move east. It was UTC+4 in Mauritius, but now I am at UTC+8. I feel like I am getting closer to Japan but quite far away actually(laugh).
It is amazing to have such a voyage experience which makes me feel the vastness of the earth. The temperature and time changed, and I met birds where living things are rare.
It will take us another two weeks to sail from Western Australia to Auckland. There are still many challenges ahead, but we will spare no effort to finish this leg.

How do sailors live in an environment with nothing surrounded but ocean for more than a month? We asked Captain Suzuki about what it is like.

Q1: What do you eat during a long-distance voyage?
Freeze-dried or boil-in-the-bag foods. All we have is a jetboil to boil water.
As a Japanese, I mainly eat alpha rice and boil-in-the-bag foods. My favorite is Japanese curry rice. In addition, I eat tofu, salami and fruits to get protein and vitamins.
My teammate Luca, who is Italian, often eats pasta and stewed dishes, but recently he has come to be a fan of Japanese curry rice!

Q2: How much food and water do you need to prepare for a voyage more than a month?
We don't know what will happen during the voyage, so we carry twice as much food as we need. It means we can spend everyday with a rich all-you-can-eat buffet(laugh).
We stock up on enough drinking water to get to the next destination. This time, we got 100L of water for two weeks to reach Auckland.
MILAI has a water generator that can filter seawater to drinking water. It makes about 4L of fresh water per hour. I use it every day so that I have not drunk that 100L yet. However, I am going to drink it when the date of arrival is confirmed.
It may be just my imagination, but I feel that the water in the Atlantic Ocean tastes a little different from the water in the Indian Ocean. I like the water in Indian Ocean more(laugh).

Q3: What is your favorite menu?
Mine is curry rice! There are many kinds of curry such as beef curry and green curry. It is a great pleasure to choose which one to eat.
Luca likes ramen. Miso ramen is his favorite!

Q4: What do you pay attention to for your health and body shape while living on a boat?
I lack exercise due to limited space. Usually, I do squats and push-ups.
I have a pedometer. Honestly, I only took 600 steps for a day. However, it is a good timing to work out when I am at each port of call.

Q5: Is there a kitchen?
There is no kitchen on the boat. All we have for cooking is a jetboil.

Q6: What about electricity?
There are 3 power generation systems. Diesel engine, solar panels, and hydroelectric power. 90% of the power during the voyage depends on hydroelectric power, which also relies on the boat speed. Only when there is no wind, we will use the engine to generate electricity. Solar power is available during the day. By the way we use Euglena's biofuel to promote net-zero carbon.

Q7: What about the toilet?
The toilet is a bucket which is covered with a biodegradable bag(laugh).
There are no restrooms installed to avoid unnecessary energy waste during the race.
I put out a bucket in the cockpit as an outdoor toilet while talking to seabirds or dolphins on sunny days. Anyway, it is too harsh especially when the boat is rocking in wind and waves(laugh).

After crossing Western Australia, we (Suzuki, Luca) reached the Great Australian Bight where is a low-pressure area. The wind speed was 20m/s or more. ‘MILAI’ (our boat) was hit so hard by waves that we could hear echoes through the boat. It was tough, but we rode out the storm and entered Bass Strait.

Gradually shortening the distance with Sec Hayai (a French team), we finally passed them at the exit of Bass Strait. After crossing Australia, we reached the Tasman Sea. We got strong winds there again and made every effort to finish the last “stretch” to Auckland.

We kept vying with Sec Hayai for the first place. Despite we lost to them only by 34 minutes, we arrived in Auckland and finished the third leg on October 16 safely. It was such a tough voyage of 35 days, but it is very rewarding and fulfilling.

Our boat also has been through a lot these days. Andrea (our teammate) arrived in Auckland before us for the maintenance preparations. We removed the keel, rudder, mast and sail this time to get ready for the rest of the race.

So far team MILAI has went halfway around the earth. We believe that we could finish the whole race and successfully get back to France.