Crew Blog

We’ve finished!

06 May 2008

Yesterday afternoon found us vying for position with Qingdao who were 60 ft or so off the port side.  Such close proximity to the competition encouraged us to focus as we don’t usually see where we are with respect to the rest of the field until we receive the 6 hourly schedules and get to know which boats have had the benefit of the anticipated wind or have got lucky with some unpredicted weather.  We did well though the night playing cat & mouse and were holding our own with the spinnaker against Qingdao but as the wind direction changed and we moved to the number 1 yankee they pulled away around breakfast time and continued to make ground to our frustration until they dropped over the horizon.

As mothers baking ourselves below deck in the heat, we’ve tried to boil and bake as few things as possible as we melt every time the gas goes on. The killer head is providing entertainment for us as one crew member after another stumbles out of the door muttering about the heat or their perspiring bodies. Certainly not the place to take your newspaper at the moment.

After lots of planning and plotting for the best course to cross the gate (the revised finish line due to the light winds and our timetable), we’ve finished in a respectable fourth behind Hull & Humber, New York and Qingdao.  The end of an interesting race where we actually got to warm up and experience some very demanding downwind sailing but unfortunately didn’t top the speeds of the last race. We’re now looking forward to some celebratory beers in Panama in a week or so.

Sue & Maria