Still racing
Somehow I imagined myself a different Leg 2, a fast, short distance, downwind race.
Being almost constantly the boat furthest south of the fleet we found ourselves soon in cold weather and my thermometer showed regularly temperatures below 10ºC, wind and water exclusive. The cold temperatures increased moisture levels below decks significantly and everything is damp and rain falls from the ceiling due to condensation. Soon we were tired but the race routine kept us busy.
The week of strong winds around the end of October was then the first real test for us on Dare To Lead during Leg 2. Racing lost soon it’s priority and we grew together as a team, facing all difficulties coming along with strong winds and high seas, e.g. I started my watch at 4 am with having a quick talk to Guy. He’s already up all night because we are in a strong storm and I am on my way to helm a racing yacht without sails but still averaging around 10 knots. He gave me a quick brief of what happened earlier the night and what I should aim for standing behind the wheel. I started my way through the inside of the Clipper 70 towards the deck, which can be quite long in strong conditions. Everywhere I looked it seemed like a battlefield. The forward head was filled with dry bags from food, the galley was a mess and things were lying around in places the usually would not. But with the storm, our team showed character! Various team members sacrificed their sleep to help out where they could. Daybreak brought me four long hours behind the traveller, with gusts of over 70 knots and waves much bigger I could have ever imagined myself. Dare To Lead surfed some of the bigger waves with over 20 knots, only rigged an anti wrap net, which was left over from the kite session the night before. Being frozen and wet from waves breaking over the deck and the hauling winds, I stepped down the companionway stairs four hours later and was welcomed in a tidied up and warm boat. Our watch had coffee and fresh toast like on a normal race day.
After all the storms I personally faced my biggest challenge. Watch after watch I struggled to leave my warm and dry sleeping bag to put on my wet socks, boots, oilskins, and gloves. Still a long way to go until Cape Town and at the back end of the fleet this race started to be the first real endurance test. I changed into my Dry Suit and everything started to feel better or dry at least. My last pair of dry socks stay dry (so far) and also my mid and base layers conserved my body heat much better. I started to enjoy the sailing again. The slowly fading sea state in the back of the low pressure system allowed us to have some smooth surfs into the 13 – 19 knots during the ocean sprint. Doing this in blue skies and a warming sun was a real mood raiser. With rising pressures the winds start to back around us and heading to Cape Town means sailing close hauled for the past days. Dare To Lead is heeling now strongly and the bow hits the short waves. Everybody wants to get there finally and again it is a character test! Knowing other teams already started their deep cleans, we will still have some hundred miles to go. Everybody is tired now but the hard work goes on; cooking, baking bread and birthday cakes, sacrificing sleep for head sail changes or relentlessly emptying the bilges. We are one unit and everybody pulls in the same direction. How Dare To Lead is facing this test is inspirational, we are still racing and we will come back stronger.
Cape Town we are coming!
Dario
