Day 2: There’s a hole in my wind and my spinna ker
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Tue 10 Jan 2023 22:58
Day 2: There’s a hole in my wind and my spinnaker
Recall where you left us we were just off La Gomera. We had switched to the Jib as it was all a bit hairy under spinnaker. I left Claire on deck with a calm boat and lots of 4G signal.
I woke up for the 2am shift feeling very tired. I felt like I’d been on a night out with friends then recalled I was still on the boat and I had just been talking to lots of friends on email and WhatsApp….it felt like I’d seen them for real.
Anyway the boat was nice and calm … a bit too calm . I had felt awful as EH01 overtook earlier , I hate it when I could be going faster however with the wind gusting 24kts it was too risky to explode even the small and mighty S3 spinnaker, The only solice was we had a lot of 4G so we each binged on the last of email , Facebook , what’s app and insta for 2 hrs
We could have relaxed all night however by 2am the wind had really dropped enough for a S3 spinnaker so as we are racing you have to go for it when the opportunity presents itself.
It was a perfect hoist and we felt good we were back racing . As we were closing in on the Island of Hierro, we started singing-
We need a hero ..holding out for a hero til the morning comes . I think Purple Mist thought that was our destination as she then started getting sucked towards Hierro island . The wind then absolutely died as either we got too close or we got sucked up under a cloud and to top it all it rained.
That started a frustrating 12 hrs of very light winds. We avoided the worst of the Hierro downwind shadow but got swallowed up by an area of 5kt winds. We watched the tracker as our competition powered away.
Anyway we were not too disheartened as this trip is a lot more than just a result . We only need to finish to hold the record for the first 2 women to do this race Doublehanded . Spirits were still high onboard. However I was there imaging all the other boats in plenty of wind racing away.
Claire has been getting close to Nature. It started with a squid jumping on her leg and wriggling his legs at her. Once she decided she wasn’t going to eat it she threw it back overboard. She has also had a fabulous pod of dolphins that she thought for a scary moment were sharks!
Anyway as the wind was light we had switched back up to the big spinnaker . Imagine my surprise to see a large tear across one seam. Seems like flying the S2 in 21kts is not a good idea after all. Purple Mist knows I love these sorts of challenges so we dropped it to the deck and I had it taped up and rehoisted all within 15minutes.
Wind is now back up to 16-21kts and sensibly we are on the small spinnaker again . Best of all we are closing in on EH01 that is less than 6NM ahead. Seems the others didn’t all have lots of wind after all but the same hole as us.