Underway
Jacana
David Munro
Sun 11 Jan 2009 15:45
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The start day finally arrived, all the final checks
were made and last pieces of provisioning put aboard. The weather was sunny with
a fresh South Easterly gusting to 30 knots. All the competitors were paraded
around the V&A before heading out through the breakwater to prepare
for the start.
The start was a reach to the first turning mark a
few miles along the seafront, we started with a reefed main and a full number
two. The headsail is a new sail bought for this years activities. It is a
vertically battened number two that can take two reefs without loosing it's
shape. The perfect tool for short handed racing reducing the number of visits to
the foredeck for sail changes.
Having started in a good breeze, Table Bay lived
upto it's reputation - the wind fell to nothing in the lee of the mountain. We
battled for half and hour to keep the boat going to take us off-shore away from
any effects of the land. Shortly after we had to alter course to avoid a Right
Whale with calf in our path. As we slid past her she and her calf rewarded us
with a display of breaching, fluking and spy-hopping some 100 meters from
Jacana.
During the afternoon the wnd picked upto a steady
25 knots gusting to 32 knots and we were keeping a constant boat speed of 11-12
knots. Top speed recorded was 16.9 knots reaching along the back of a
particularly large wave. Our progress was broken an hour before dawn by the boom
becoming detatched from the mast. The main was dropped and lashed whilst we
started to make repairs. After some hacksawing and a large amount of hammer
beating the boom was back on the boat and shortly after day break we were
back upto full speed.
The weather has settled down to a steady 18 knots
from the South West and we are sailing towards South
America.
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