Crew Blog

We love downwind racing

09 April 2008

It’s one of the reasons we signed up for Clipper - it’s advertised as being with the prevailing winds and currents. Unfortunately that naughty Sir Robin Knox-Johnston was telling us porkies - we’ve had 20-30 knots on the nose ever since Oahu.

Not that there’s anything wrong with upwind sailing - a well-trimmed set of white sails (white sails being the main, staysail and yankees, as opposed to the storm sails or the spinnakers) is a beauteous sight and they don’t require quite so much constant attention as a kite, meaning that the sailing is very enjoyable.

What isn’t enjoyable is trying to do stuff in the galley. I’ve had bouncier mother watches, but this one has had the silliest angles. At one point the only way I could stay upright while stirring lunch on the hob was to put one foot in a cupboard and brace the other leg across a handy patch of work surface.  Fear not, I disinfected my trainers.

The race is very much on at the moment, with the fleet bunched pretty
tightly and the scheds being watched closely to see what tactics are being deployed by the other boats. Our crack strategy squad, made up of Susan ‘NASA’ Winnitoy and Brendon ‘One-Armed Bandit’ Hayes, are working on a cunning scheme to head north to catch a high which could hopefully send us screaming all the way into Santa Cruz. This is the sort of tactic which will have avid Nova supporters such as Harold Gallagher (Happy Birthday Grandad) up in arms - he thinks we should just follow Hull & Humber - but as Rob says: if you’re behind someone, there’s no point doing the same as them.

And with that, it must be time to start on JC’s Special Macaroni Cheese. Making béchamel sauce from scratch on a forty-degree heel isn’t much fun, but the smiling faces and demands for thirds make it worthwhile.

Chris ‘JC’ Wicks and Andrea ‘Token Nova Scotian’ Nemetz