Antigua: Pre-race preparations

Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Sun 19 Feb 2023 12:03

17:00.717N 61:46.212W
Antigua: Pre-race preparations

Well just like that the time has ticked by and our second big offshore race starts tomorrow. This is the Caribbean 600 - the ‘Fastnet race ‘ of the Caribbean islands. We start and end in Antigua with a course that wanders up and down and round and round islands. No stopping for Rum punch though as it’s a non stop race. Unlike our transatlantic sleigh ride downwind this race has every point of sail and plenty of rough upwind sections. Also as the trade wind is pretty constant from the east when you go west of the high volcanic islands the wind is first accelerated then shadowed so plenty of sail changes will be needed.

We’ve had a great few days here. There are lots of folks we both know so plenty of chance for socialising. We chatted last night to a French boat (L’Esprit d’equipe) just ahead of us on Transat with 7 blokes aboard who were seriously worried we would catch them up! Also the Royal Navy boat (Discoverer of Hornet) with 17 sailors aboard who are using this race as adventure training. Apparently they are very weighted down with MOD regulated kit and lots of water so that’s definitely a target for us to beat.

We’ve done the last jobs the main one being to rethread the spinnaker halyard that was chopped in ‘spinnaker gate’. When Claire cut it the end slid down inside the mast and we pulled it all out the bottom. So we needed to rethread it from the top. Now boats being boats you can’t just stuff it in as it doesn’t fall down you need to weight it. However the weight has to be small enough to go through the inlet and exit holes in the mast. We tried a piece of shackle but it wasn’t enough so we had to make a string of shackle pins. Thanks to Sea Bear who added a few to the collection we had a chain of them. Claire went up the mast this time hoisted by fellow Magenta project mentee Lydia. Lydia has been staying aboard helping us set up Purple Mist whilst she interviews for another boat and tries to find a ride for the race.

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So Claire is up the mast carefully threading in the halyard and Lydia and I are fishing at the base to try and retrieve it. Well something strange was happening in that mast as the rope was going in the top quite nicely but nothing was popping out the bottom.

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We just couldn’t understand until we looked up and realised the mast is bent and the spreaders (bits that go across) are in the way. I take off the backstay to straighten the mast though it’s still naturally bent , meanwhile Claire had a massive tangle to sort at the top and then tried a whole new way of threading it. Two hours of fiddling later we finally hear the rattle of shackle pins coming our way and with a sigh of relief we fish out the end.

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Anyway whilst all this is going on RORC media are taking lots of pictures and have a drone up so the whole episode is captured from every angle. I was slightly concerned as Claire came down the mast and the camera was shooting up at her that we would recreate that moment in the Bridget Jones movie with the fireman’s pole …but luckily the bosons chair gives a more flattering silhouette from underneath.

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We’ve also had a bit of chance for sightseeing with some trips over to Nelsons Dockyard which was the home of the British fleet in the Caribbean. It has some interesting buildings and nice restaurants so we’ve been relaxing as well. We also saw one of the transatlantic rowing team finish the race. A husband and wife Team Mr and Mrseas. They looked shattered as they wobbled off their boat after 60 days at sea. We often thought on our crossing we are still better off than a rower. Even when we had no main sail and just a storm jib we were still going faster than a rower and no need to row.

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