Crew Blog

The gloves are off on Nova Scotia

10 October 2007

We were woken this morning with a shout of “all hands on deck”. We had received a call from Durban 2010 and Beyond warning us of potential gusts of 45 knots - time to get our spinnaker down! These sudden squalls are typical of this area – that was the first of many today.

The rain comes down in torrents and can actually hurt exposed skin. We won’t reveal what was being exposed at the time! The wind increases quickly and unpredictably, resulting in three headsail changes in just one watch - hard work in this heat. Helming is especially hard as the rain reduces visibility; the helms actually wished they had ski goggles - strange attire in this weather but they would have kept the driving rain out!

The sky was full of lightning and during the night we lost both our radar and our navigation system twice, which was probably caused by a lightning strike.

However squalls are not all bad - many of the crew took the opportunity to have a much needed fresh water shower - that’s a true luxury after two weeks of salt water showers.

We also have another reason spirits are up on Nova Scotia - we are reducing Durban 2010 and Beyond‘s lead quite substantially - it was down to only seven miles earlier today. Again we are hoping that west is best as we take a more westerly route - but watch this space to see which tactic pays off in the end.

Kate and Mel