Saturday 28 Nov
Race Day 6
Day 6 here on Challenger 3 has been quite eventful. The morning started with Lucia finding and disposing of a few flying fish that had decided to make the deck their new home. Once we had a fish free area it was time to do a spinnaker peel which ran like clockwork. Kirstie was swinging on the lines again doing her regular spiderman acrobatics which have now been captured on film! Once the heavier spinnaker was down there was the opportunity to carry out some much needed repairs on the sail before carefully storing it back in the sail locker.
It was then Dave time again! He gave the Port watch a very much appreciated overview of weather, specifically how high and low pressure areas are generated, so that we could get a better understanding of the tactics being employed in order to beat challenger 1. All was going well and we were absorbing the knowledge like sponges until the inevitable happened and he cracked a joke; ……”Which biscuits can fly?” Answer: “The plain ones!” ……the crew sighs.
People have also started to demonstrate their hidden skills. Rosie and Keith, having been inspired by Rickie’s night baking activities, decided to make some freshly made bread for lunch! It tasted amazing and the choice of both white and wholemeal was highly unexpected. This also spurred Mark on to whip out our fishing rod and start attempting to catch some fresh dinner. After a couple of hours we had two fish (species still unidentified!!) ready for the mother watch to work their usual magic.
Firas and Daniel
This skipper’s entry into the blog will have to wait a bit. This week old “beard” has to go…
Better, much better.
So we are approaching half way. The party is planned for Monday. We have sailed 1186 Nautical miles so far, and have 1611 Nautical miles still to sail (in a straight line). Which leaves 425 miles between the two or 213 approx. miles to sail in the right direction before the two numbers cross over. We are currently doing 8.6 knots (Nautical Miles per hour), so some quick maths (or reaching for the calculator) gives us a little over 24 hours before party time. Of course it always takes longer as the wind is patchy at the moment and we are 10 degrees off sailing straight to the Rum Line in Rodney Bay, St Lucia.
We had a mother of a rain shower last night. The big black cloud had been stalking us for a while. Far from the wind building as it approached, which is normal behaviour, it all went a bit still and quiet and the wind dropped away to 6 knots. Then the first spits of rain came and with it 25 knots of wind. The blue and white kite was still up and I decided to run with it which in hindsight was a good decision although I was doubting myself at times. The boat took flight in the deluge, I bore away dead downwind and it became a battle of nerve and trying to ignore the buckets of water pouring over me. It was fun. And thirty minutes later we were in clear skies and light patch winds again.
The High Pressure system developing North of us is hopefully going to make itself felt to Challenger 1 tomorrow, and unless they have already tried to get South overnight (which will have put them on a terrible course in these North East winds), there is very little they can do to escape its clutches. Well that’s what the GRIB Weather files are telling me. And that is why we have been making our way South at every sensible opportunity, forsaking the stronger winds currently up North and handing our rivals a 100 Nm lead at last count. So the mid race party will either be a joyous celebration of a plan well executed, or a drowning of sorrows or blaming the skipper for going the wrong way. Tomorrow will tell and Monday through Thursday next week we may or may not reap the reward.
Ricky (skipper)