Hummingbird - Blog: On your marks, get set, go!

Our few days in the Cape Verde islands made for a stellar mid-passage stopover. Not least because we discovered that we’d placed an awesome fourth in our class on leg 1 – so so close to a podium finish! It’s been enough to leave us all with tantalising visions of spraying bottles of fizzy champagne around and holding a big shiny gold cup above our heads in a couple weeks’ time…

From our base at the busy marina in Sao Vicente we each spread out to explore here and there. Shortly after the last blog’s culinary adventure through the back streets of Mindelo, our two resident Ozzies rose at the crack of dawn to jump on a ferry to neighbouring island Santo Antao and hike the archipelago’s lushest hills. Most of the crew sipped traditional lemon teas from atop a very harmattan-glazed mountain whilst touring Sao Vicente by mini bus – with so much Saharan dust swallowing the island whole, you mostly had to sense rather than see the view. We’ve been for a swim/snorkel in the turquoise waters, spotting trumpet- and parrot-fish in abundance, attempting to cool off in the heat maxing out past 30 degrees Celsius. And we’ve all had to grab a gelato or two; I can definitely recommend the cappuccino cone, preferably two scoops. There was an ARC+ prize giving ceremony held at the museum, where a few brilliant local dance groups performed (most notably our favourite feathered ladies who have totally inspired us to practise our twerking… seriously, we’ve youtubed it) and the results of Canaries –> Cape Verde were revealed, and yep since finding out how close to a medal position we came our eyes are now firmly set on a prize!

New crew members Tony and Cui joined us over the weekend. Whilst Nicky, Gina, John and Fraser victualled away in the busy markets, doing an admirable job of provisioning for 12 people for 2+ weeks in a tropical climate with a potentially unreliable freezer (though fingers crossed it’s currently freezing away quite nicely) we headed out for a training sail in the bay. Rachael stayed ashore to passage plan, so I was set free with my fabulous first mates Michelle and Jen – both long-term Rubicon 3 crew members and practically Hummingbird Liveaboards – to put Cui and Tony through their paces out in the bay. With our lil crew of 5 the guys definitely felt the burn of non stop sweating/ grinding/ easing/ gybing as they became familiar enough with the ropes to slide in seamlessly with the team. It was so great to get off the pontoon (Jen expertly drove us off) and back out on the water after a few days on land and build up our appetite for leg 2! Once Michelle showed us all how to recover an MOB we reluctantly headed back in to find the victuallers returning victorious (and slightly sweaty), with enough chickpeas to generate our own apparent wind in the event of being becalmed.

Then finally today the big day arrived: leg 2 race start! This morning whipped up a bit of a last-minute frenzy, with yet more food being stowed, the freezer getting wired in, immigration check outs, extra diesel jerry cans finding new homes, water tanks and spare bottles being topped up, the final messages home via wifi being sent, the deck being prepped… eventually Nicky wowed us with egg custards and a very well presented passage plan, clueing us in on the next 2100nm of transatlantic open ocean. This is it!! We’re actually off! Anything between 13-18 days of endless horizons, long spinnaker runs and the occasional squall lie ahead. And our race start across the line earlier was picture perfect – it sure does feel good to overtake! Mild apologies to the yacht who was just below us as our spinnaker beautifully billowed open from it’s wool… we’re not competitive at all. Such a brilliant afternoon and the perfect way to begin two weeks of blue water rally cruising.

We’ve now settled into our watch system, with two teams of 3 and one of 4 standing 3 hours on, 6 off for the foreseeable. The other boats are slowly dropping off the AIS as we all spread out north and south of the rhumb line, but we’ve currently got our eyes on previous winners Luna and close competitors Wild Iris. We’ve talked tactics for weather routing, and are desperately hoping that a little more wind appears on the weather forecast in the next few days. Be sure to keep an eye on our progress on the ARC tracker!

Life is pretty sweet on Hbird – next stop St Lucia.
Holly :-)