Crew Blog

Satisfaction in spades

02 February 2008

It’s hard to believe that, 1200 miles into this race, we’re racing with three other boats in visual range.  As I write this, we’re on a starboard tack as night has just fallen, heading generally north. Glasgow’s stern light is just ahead of us by a mile or two, Hull and Humber’s starboard light is off to our port about two miles away (downwind, and so we’re ahead of them), and a few miles behind them we’ve begun to see a dim light, which we take to be New York.

Jamaica is so far ahead that we don’t think much about them.

The winds are strong enough that we alternate between our Yankee 2 andYankee 3 (the two smallest headsails) and one or two reefs in our mainsail.

All four of us are close hauled and battling for second place.  All for of us have the same sails selected most of the time. In this race within a race, then, it all comes down to the helm: who can steer this flying hulk of fibreglass most efficiently in these pounding seas at the sharpest angle upwind.

Though the helm is critical at this point, every single person on this boat (save Skipper Mark) takes his or her 30 minute turn at the wheel during their watch.  Some are better than others, certainly, but our ability to hang with the likes of Glasgow and even hold Hull and Humber off for a few days tells me that, as a collective group, we’re as good as anyone. More thrilling to me than whether or not we can place in this race is how we, as a team, are clinging tenaciously to what has proven to be some of the dominant boats in this race. 

What truly attracted me to this race is the hope of experiencing a sum of parts being greater than the whole.  I’m getting that satisfaction now in spades.

Timothy Ettridge