Friday 4th December
Race Day 12
The Night of the Long Squalls-strong winds and little sleep
The day started with some strong winds that would continue to grow throughout the day. Much to Kirsty’s dismay, a top speed challenge was introduced just as she headed below deck for her day, alongside Jerry, on Mother Watch. Mark set the bar within the Starboard Watch, to be trumped first by Ricky with 13.9 and then Rosie with 14.7 knots. However, Steve quickly wiped the smug grin off Rosie’s face with a whopping 16.8 knots, perfectly timing a gust and wave in order to surf into the lead. This was not beaten and sets a hard task to match!
The day was slightly cloudy although very warm and muggy. A hidden sun allowed the crew members off-watch to go about some chores. Washing continually emerged from below to be hung out to dry on the rail. However, bumpy seas and considerable gusts meant that the washing just got wetter and wetter as the leeward rail was submerged. Poor Mike seemed to fare worst-anytime he moved his clothing the helm did all he could to make sure that that part of the rail got a good dunking.
The afternoon brought little excitement other than a school of dolphins until the wind really started picking up in the early evening. A great call by skipper Ricky meant that the Spinnaker was finally dropped after flying for nearly 9 full days, to be replaced by the Yankee 2 (we weren’t willing to risk testing our sewing skills on Yankee 1 just yet) and Staysail. The manoeuvre ran smoothly and efficiently with a now well-trained crew and the boat settled down once more. Kirstie sneakily managed to murder Firas in the boat Cluedo that is currently running as things were being tidied away after the sail change. As darkness drew in winds increased and both skipper and crew were thankful for the smaller sails in a moonless early evening. Kirsty took advantage of the darkness and cunningly murdered barefoot Lucia with a bottle of water. It must be true that K the serial killer will strike again….
Things were going quite smoothly until the squall gods decided to pay a visit. Port Watch suffered the first squall and all seemed relatively calm when Starboard Watch first took over, although the rolling seas made helming interesting. However, about 2 hours into the watch the clouds started to gather behind us and things went downhill from there. DJ Dave the Mate had kindly offered Keith the chance to go below at the end the watch to work on his sights. Big mistake! Squall after squall came through accompanied by torrential rain and they continued for nearly two hours, right through the Watch change. We had to move the Yankee onto the other side and off the pole and Dave and Steve, the Squall Brothers, heroically did their best to outrun the squalls of 30+ knots. Unfortunately this meant that we finished up going back to where we came from, which was less than ideal and B’s brownies suffered las consecuencias. A shout was heard from the companionway - you ruined the brownies!
There is now a new Yankee 2 surfing race going on, with Steve once again leading with an impressive 13.2 knots. Keith and Rosie’s day on Mother Watch today which kicked off at 3am with some bread making.
(Love to Frenches-having a fab time and trying to hog the helm! Rosie)
After a hot and very humid day and watching the clouds build bigger and taller than before, it was becoming obvious that tonight’s squalls could be quite a bit stronger than before. So I looked at the clouds long and hard and then flinched. You win. After standing up to the wind armed with a full main and a selection of spinnakers for the last eight days, we changed sail plan.
We dropped our spinnaker and polled out the Yankee 2 and hoisted the staysail just for good measure. The view ahead looked strangely different, after so long looking ahead to the spinnaker day and night, we were now looking at a flat headsail forced out windward and giving the boat a more stable and resilient sail plan for the night.
Initially of course the wind eased, and then the decision was vindicated as the gusts topped 34 knots and the series of squalls came through.
Ricky (skipper)