Race 5 - Day 16
Crew Diary - Race 5 - ​Day 16
07 January

Find a job

Sorry, it is me. I have been forced yet again to write a blog by a very insisting lady (guess he means me?!).

First of all, I’d like to wish all our supporters and families a very Happy New Year!

When you are at the same tack for several days it can be hard to keep yourself motivated. So the way I overcome this is to find a job, or several jobs over several watches. There is always a job to do on the boat and if somebody says there isn’t, then they definitely didn’t look properly or are outright lying and just prefer to lay on the deck. But the nice thing is we are all different, otherwise, I would have to fight for a job (he just needs to share from time to time ;-)).

I have now learned several new skills from rope splicing (me too!) to the best method to empty the water out of the bilges,and it also extends to drilling holes into the floor beds of heads to ensure that the yellowish fluids drain out of the heads (finally after numerous reminders!). My latest work seems to be down in the Lazarette. Tinkering with the steering gear to ensure that we don’t lose steering before Airlie Beach.

It is quite satisfying to feel that you have contributed to the maintenance of the boat to make sure it is all working ok when required (YES!). I have even seemed to have adopted a new role which is helping Bettina on sail repair, which is quite interesting as B is quite thorough (don’t know what he is talking about here?! But he is a great help indeed!)

I think Guy our Skipper looks at me a bit gone out when I start creating jobs on the boat to keep myself busy and he hasn't thought about them himself before. He keeps joking about my busy hands though but then joins me from time to time as well *gg* (confirmed)

This is still the biggest challenge of the race for me and I’m missing my darling Jo!

Stuart & The Sailing Austrian (ghost typist)