Crew Blog

On the up

11 February 2008

Slowly we work our way north, up the coast of China. Everything seems to have that ‘up’ feeling, must be this ‘up wind’ sailing - I thought it was supposed to be a ‘down wind’ race! Getting up out of your bunk is an effort, getting up to the saloon is an effort, getting up on deck is an even bigger effort and then it’s up and down these (quite big some of them) wet hills which then have a nasty habit of throwing large quantities of water all over you with very little warning. On two occasions rather large deluges of water, while unclipping the running backstays, have resulted in lifejackets being inflated - much to the hilarity of all except those involved who have to deflate the jacket and negotiate themselves back down below to get it sorted out.

In addition to ‘slam dunking’ we are now able to add ‘dunkin donuts’, this is the art of tacking without realising it (usually at night!) while trying to maintain 40 degrees apparent and then, in the process of correcting this manoeuvre give all on deck a good soaking.

Other interesting evolutions have included raising and lowering the Yankee sail three times in quick succession due to a) sail caught on handrail, b) phantom rip in sail c) safety harness caught in halyard winch. All carried out with maximum use of colourful and creative Anglo Saxon, but to absolutely no effect as no one can hear what anyone else is saying anyway! If it wasn’t pitch dark, wet, cold and on a rocking and rolling boat it would make a great comedy sketch.

The race order keeps changing, no doubt breakages playing a part, in addition to the sailing and navigational skills of the skippers and crews, of course! As has previously been reported we have incurred a number of breakages, the most recent being the tack shackle to the yankee sail, but the worst so far is the port heads (toilet) blocked!

It seems life is to continue in this vein a while longer in fact, with higher winds forecast, it looks like we will have more tales of ‘fun on the high seas’ to report. Oh the joys of putting on wet socks and boots and foulies for another hard shift at the office - and to think we paid to do it!

Frank