ARC Log - Day 4
Global Yacht Racing's P42
Global Yacht Racing
Thu 27 Nov 2008 20:16
Author: Ric
Nobody has volunteered any creative writing for this evening's blog, so you're going to have to put up with my, less creative, ramblings. Perhaps the reason for the lack of contributions today is that our last 24 hours has seen us run over 215 nautical miles, and it's required everyone's full attention. Or it could be because the No.1 contributor, our naked German (or Swiss) friend Sebastian, is still a little dazed from the flying fish that clouted him in the head during a gybe in the dark early this morning.
We managed to fly our full mainsail and largest running spinnaker all night last night in winds up to about 20 knots. Helming (steering) the boat in these conditions takes a lot of concentration and it's been good to see our more experienced drivers coaching those less so - everyone is taking an equal share of the driving, trimming and grinding. We're lucky to have 10 people on board so there's always someone fresh to take over.
In an increasingly confused sea state, we put a reef in at lunchtime to try to reduce the boat's tendancy to round up and broach on the bigger waves. I think it helped, but also caused the bow to nosedive even more than usual, which actually made helming more difficult. After a few big broaches through the afternoon, I eventually gave up around 5pm and we're now rolling downwind with our small headsail poled out.
Most of us accept that we needed to get the boat under control, and reduce the risk of doing any further damage to the boat or crew. But it does feel like we've taken our foot off the gas now, as we meander down each wave averaging only 8 knots. It would be reasonable to fly our spinnaker in these conditions, but it simply requires more experience than we have on board. Remember that 8 of our 10 crew have never sailed a race boat like P42, and she's a bit of a handful even for a professional crew. Hopefully by the time it gets light in the morning we'll have a flatter sea and we'll give it another go.
We're reminded of the need to keep focused and pushing the boat hard as today's position reports come in to us from the ARC office. We crossed paths with Fair Do's earlier, and according to our calculations we're doing very well in our racing division (and overall). It's still a long way to St Lucia (2083 miles) but to be in the same bit of water as the bigger boats in our class after 5 days racing is a significant achievement. Finger's crossed that our conservative sail plan tonight won't see us slip back too far.
Everyone's slipping into life on board now. Preparing our boil in the bag dinner now takes a sensible amount of time, although consuming them is proving more difficult as we're gradually losing spoons. I think we may need a spoon amnesty tomorrow. People are gradually learning the flavours that Wayfarer meals have to offer too, and there's now a rush to secure your favourite each mealtime. Opinions are divided on the meatballs, while everyone likes the vegetable curry, and beef stew. George however, still insists he can only eat the sausage and beans.
Right, Paul's just found a secret stash of Haribo, and I intend to get to them before the rest of the crew do. TTFN!