Race 3 - Day 14
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 14: Cape Town to Fremantle
14 November
Good morning everyone.
Finally, Iain gets to have his say on the old team GREAT Britain blog!
We have now been on board two weeks and to gather some inspiration for this report I have gone back to read some of the other blogs that the crew have written. There has been a significant amount already said on the wind, the sails and the angles we are living at, so I am going to tell you about something a little different: how much fun I'm having!
Over the past two weeks we've experienced all sorts of weather (as already mentioned), but as a positive this has allowed us to learn about a lot of different sails and approaches from getting from A to B (often via C or D). Andy has been great at explaining tactical decisions and even I, as a complete novice sailor, get to contribute to decisions with all the information clearly set out for us. It should be noted I have tried to use some expected value decision trees to optimise the tactical decisions (and they said my actuarial exams wouldn't come in handy at sea), but we will have to see how we go before I send Andy my bill for consulting services.
Besides the actual sailing malarkey, the parts of the trip that I am enjoying the most are the fun chats and day-to-day living on board with everyone. Seeing Hugh emerge from his bunk within two minutes of the wake-up with his boots already on and ready to helm (like a kid at Christmas) makes me chuckle and I almost collapsed when I saw the picture of little Hugh in the Nav. Paul and Ray have also been giving me some education lessons on the fashions of the 70s (yesterday it was something called “scant” and string vests).
Injury Update!
It is my sad duty to update you all on another injury to the crew. A couple of days ago my lovely bunk-mate Karen was on galley duty and produced a delicious dessert which could only be described as a “toffee, chocolate and biscuit tray-bake”. Due to the adhesive nature of the pudding the crew were each allowed two spoons from the tray before heading on deck. A couple of hours later, Stephan and I (popping down to warm our hands) noticed that the tray still had significant remains and in order to help Karen with her washing up we took it upon ourselves to get as much of the deliciousness from the tray. Unfortunately, I did not appreciate the severity of the task and by my third attempt at the large chocolate crumb in the port side – rear corner I managed to significantly scuff my poor knuckles and bruise a pinkie. I then had to leave the remaining crumbs to Stephan, who, being a dentist, got quickly to work and cleaned that tray like taking plaque off a molar.
Now I'm sure my injury is relatively common amongst the hard men and women at sea, but it served to remind us all that there are a lot of dangers out there and we need to be careful.
Finally, I just want to give a quick shout out to my Mum, Dad, Andrew and my Viktoriya. While I am having an incredible time, I can't wait to get back on land and send you all pictures of my poor hand.
Nautical regards,
Iain