Day 2
Digiboat's "Product Testing"
Simon Blundell
Thu 20 Oct 2011 11:33
18°44.188N
112°19.9638E
Thur 20/10
1750LT
220nm in our
first 24hrs at an avg speed in the high 8's is an El Oro
record!
It was a shame
we lost the kite through the second half of last night, but the forecast 20kn
this morning allowed us to keep our avg respectable. We sailed E of our
rhumbline to get a better wind angle without sacrificing our
VMG.
After lunch
(gourmet sandwiches of porchetta on seeded rye with salad and egg mayonnaise and
a red wine chaser) the wind died so we decided to set the kite, even though we
are down to one spare halyard. Some Burmese re-interpretation of which direction
a rope winds around a winch resulted in the Skipper taking an express elevator
ride aloft. Somewhere between the first and second spreader (in about .05 sec!)
I saw water rather than deck underneath and decided this was the best time to
let go, the alternative was to keep hold and get shot out the top of the mast
like a human cannon ball. After hitting the water from about 50' I saw a
convenient Jesus Line swim past which was the spinnaker's (now in the water
again alongside the hull) sheet. I don't recommend grabbing 10mm Spectra line
when it's doing 9kn, but at the time it seemed a better option than floating for
an hour while a full MOB maneuvre was completed. With not much finger skin left
I got back onboard via our emergency rope ladder and now have 5 fingers covered
in bandages and condoms. A good practical demonstration for our 2 Burmese Sea
Cadets that are doing some "live" training onboard - the slightest error or
lapse of concentration can very quickly turn into disaster. Now nicely drugged
by Dr. Wilson so should be interesting next stint on the
helm!
Shortly after,
we revisited the kite idea and this time, using CW winding on the winch
successfully sent it, and it alone, aloft. Speed picked back up to 10-11kn for
30min before the kite, well half of it, decided to go swimming again, while the
other half stayed at mast head imitating a flag. Time to break out the sewing
machine, but as the kite's being a bit tempermental we'll save it for the last
day when the prediction is for quite light winds.
Seas have
certainly abated the last 24 hrs so should be able to start the scrabble
tournament tomorrow. All crew in good spirits and well rested, Stephen's
smelling very sweet always, I think he's taking two showers each day. Possibly a
tactical ploy as we do carry 2 tonne of water and with light winds forecast for
Sat it's a good idea to shed some weight.
On the last
sked we had passed one boat and were just behind another. Next sked's in 15min
so we'll see how our kite issues have affected us. We are in the Premier
Cruising division and the other yachts around us are IRC. We do have a very
favourable IRC handicap for this type of race so it will be a good oppurtunity
for us to see how we rate against the pure-bred race
yachts.
SJB