Crew Blog

Nearly there!

21 April 2008

What a mighty fine sight to have a fully rigged BBB up to it again!  Let’s play catch up! That was the aim as the rest of the fleet departed Hawaii to begin their next race with only 8 of the 10 boats to compete against.

Our sojourn from Waikiki across the azure, no, overcast and dark abandoned Pacific, has encountered hardly any signs of humanity apart from one cargo ship and one unidentifiable yacht in all 12 days!  No other ‘madman’ would want to cross this stretch of ocean!  Well, the first 4/5 days were rough and ‘nasty’ with myself being all horizontal with the chuckles as I’d just joined the fleet and was somewhat raw, added to the memory loss of previous rough weather sailing, but alas it has taken 8 days to attach the sea legs…

We have been juggling and jostling both motor and sail, independently and equally together where needed to keep up the knots - time for fuel calculations and weather forecasts to determine when and for how long to burn the diesel.  We’ve had somewhat inconsistent winds to drive us into our now slight seas, rolling swell and little breeze. This has thankfully given us time for repairs and maintenance, leaving little to be done in port and will be very happy to see the pros handle the rigging adjustments, gearing us up for a win on the next leg!

We WILL now come in and join the fleet on the very few last drops of diesel and little breeze, to wash off, pick up our much awaited crew and turn our vessel around for a very quick departure to a warmer racing leg to the south.
We have an incredible crew on board so look out; we are now back in for the running, we have a full Rig!

Sharon Bilton