Ships log Monday 26th Nov

Rebel T
Tim Walsh
Mon 26 Nov 2007 11:41
Dearest all , it is 10.10am and I am just off watch. The show so far.....
The start was fine. we stayed away from the crush and set the parasailor
upwind of the line crossing a minute or so after the gun about half way
along. It was pretty crowded and a white Oyster seemed intent on boarding,
the way things are at a mass start, but no real problems.

We slowly overthauled the mass of the fleet, we were inside but due to the
imminent arrival at the wind acceleration zone at the bottom of the island
we decided to edge out, we took a slant as they say and speeded up because
our apparent wind increased. we were absolutely roaring along at between 12
and 14 knts, but there were squalls with rain coming up. we watched the
spinnakers behind us, some were broaching , two tore down and some were
taken down. Using skippers head not heart we dropped the Parasailor,
"Maximus" back into its bag and unrolled the Genniker. whilst we did this
Cat Man Do our arch rival and good friends, stormed passed with their
Parasailor still up. They each had a Tshirt on which read on the back over
the 4 shirts,
"Enjoy-the-view-Rebel T" obviously pre planned back in UK and much
appreciated by both them and us!!

as they passed we were just accelerating up to about 10 knts , but they flew
by at Lord knows what, then the wind eases to about 15knts....Bugger!.

given 10 minutes they were well ahead but the wind had increased to about
30knts and overtaken or not I felt we had done the right thing. It is a long
trip and we need to keep the boat safe and complete. Right about then ,
Cat-Man-Do's para got wrapped round the mast head and went wild, we were all
worried for them, it happened twice more but they came to no arm and were
soon way ahead. we continued we went 10 miles south of the island then
headed SW. we had 30knts all the way on the STrbd quarter, we stormed along
under genniker between 10 and 15.5 knts, the fastest sail I have ever had on
the boat and her weighted down as never before. She flew.
Night came on and with it a slight easing in the second half. the crew began
to suffer with mild sea sickness, all had taken pills as "half a Lazarus" is
standard issue, but went down even so.
Anthony slept on the saloon seat looking white, Mike went like a bear coming
out of hibernation, even Betty in the bedroom held no pleasure for him.
Jeff and I were OK on the wheel but fragile. Trevor, luckily was ok and he
made us a meal of 4 cartons of Colette beef and veg, a life saver.
during my nght watch which is me, Jeff and Ant. Jeff stayed up while me and
ant cat napped.

During the night we heard Cat man do had still been flying the rparasailor
and when they tried to get it down in 30 odd knts at night it got caught
round the genoa block at the top of the mast. Big Shit. Brian tried to go
up but after 2 attempts could not. Peter went up to the top just after
midnight and freed it. I don't know if the sail is OK but the boys are.
When they called this morning they were abeam but 6miles south of us.
Toitoise and Hare.
At change of watch this moning 10 am we were all up and Mike cooked boiled
eggs and Meusli and yoghhurt and tea, we all felt bbetter, I felt well
enough to risk writing this!!
WE all ended up up hysterical due to Stugeron dreams. Stugeron our
miraculous seasick remedy does give you vivid dreams. I dreamt I was at an
Elvis concert and he was singing the "His Soul is marching on" song. it
always makes me cry. Jeff dreamt that we found a little island in the sea
and he was in a leafy lane just like in Surrey and he started to wave like a
leaf in the breese, then he flew above the ground and was shouting to me to
get it on the camera.
Ant dreamt that Thomas the parasailor apeared to him in his dream...."St
Thomas" perhaps and told him he had done very well and was nearly half way
accross. Mike didn't dream as he is not being a good boy and is not taking
his medication and Trevor dreamed he owned a big property in Blackheath with
a fantastic staircase that led into a wall?

The thing is that the dreams are so vivid it is like realife.
As breakfast was served I mentioned we should all eat up to get weight off
the boat......well it all got very blokey..,we compelled Trevor to use his
maths degree to work out how many poo's a day were needed to stay on
scedule. Trevor was of course reluctant to be used in this way but it is all
for the crew. We decided not to put a poo log on the wall along with water
and diesel usage.
A real and related problem is trying to wee. we all have layers abnd
oilskins on and the motion of the boat is aggressive. None of us can brace
ourselves long enough to do a wee wee, we all manage just a quick dribble
before our natural bracing tightens up the wee muscle or whatever,

Ant tried going below, he braced across the toilet compartment with both
hands and knees hovered above the bowl but then couldn't get his willie out.
so he let go one hand to facilitate this neccisity. just as success was his
the boat lurched into a wave, he shot forward, head butted the wall and
wee'd inside his oilskin leg!!. We now think to sit down on the bowl lady
like is probably the best way. but getting all that clothing off.

seriously it is a problem because it dis-inclines you to drink or to go.and
that keeps the boat heavy!!!

OK i will go for fear of getting sick.

I need to say hello to David Jones, the dad of Tim Jones the watermaker man.
Hello Mr Jones!!

Bye for now. current speed 6.6knts SW. taking it easy for an hour or so to
let the crew get it together with stomachs and sleep and stuff. What a nice
Skipper i am xx Tim