Wednesday 25 Nov
Race Day 3
The first big activity of Tuesday evening was dropping the spinnaker on watch change as the wind increased. Unfortunately this pushed back dinner and a couple of guys suffered rope burns while trying to control the spinnaker in the gusty wind. No lasting damage but lots of ice was used to cool the burns.
The only other drama overnight was nearly having to gibe because of wind change. Luckily the power of thought from the foredeck cause the wind to change back so no gibe. A few dolphins came to say ahoy and then slipped off into the darkness of the ocean.
This is Wednesday morning with bacon rolls for breakfast. All good till we set the smoke alarm off – everybody needed to get up anyway J. Nothing better having your bacon roll with morning coffee while watching a spectacular sunrise.
Settling in to another day of Atlantic sailing, completing the Yankee 1 repair (6 metres of hand sewing) and hoping to see more wildlife and maybe some of our competitors.
Mike and Lucia
Yesterday the wind eased enough for us to get the spinnker out and to fly it for the whole day. The wind is still up and down in patches and passing showery rain clouds confuse the wind angles and wind strengths from time to time. With the sun setting and black clouds looming behind, I reversed our initial brave plan of flying the spinnaker through the night and we did a drop in 25 knots of building wind.
Repairs to the Yankee 1 have become a communal project with pairs of cross stitchers creating a neat double zig zag pattern on both sides of the rip through double sided Dacron patches. We will reinforce the luff and leech with some tape and hopefully soon we can put the “Big Yellow” back up. At the moment though the winds are still strong enough to make the smaller white Yankee 2 the sail of choice. We are still surging along at between 8 and 10 knots depending on the surf on the Atlantic swell.
Meal plans are taking some adjustment and creativity as we react to the latest ripening crop of fruit and vegetables slung in netting in the saloon. Yesterday it was Avocados, and we may well finish them up today. The Kaki’s (delicious Spanish fruit I had not tried before) are now all coming into their prime and are the snack choice on deck.
2125 miles to go and plenty of time to catch those boats ahead. At the moment we are in our own private race with those boats we are tracking on AIS, “Brave Heart of Sark” and “Delicia” who we have been racing since the start.
Lots of love to all at home, hope the Kitchen Counters look fab !
Ricky (Skipper)