Race 2 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 12: Punta del Este to Cape Town
16 October

Christopher Walsh
Christopher Walsh
Team Greenings
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Barred as I am from talking about Mother duties - cooking, cleaning, baking etc. - I am going to give it a short mention. We have noticed by experiment that bread left in the engine room to prove easily reaches the top of the tin! The new tin openers are very good. The selection and range of fresh food we still have is amazing, and so to sea.

Out on the ocean, we are still careering down (across) the South Atlantic, following the rhumb line. We have not seen penguins, polar bears or icebergs but it has been the coldest so far. We were as far down as 40 degrees and temperatures on deck at night have been in single figures as well as being, in some cases and points of sail, very wet. I have looked at my Typhoon onesie (came with dry suit) and have been wearing it since. Also looked at red sealskin hat but it spends more time looking like Tommy Cooper's hat (Taboosh).

Onesies create difficult problems for men which I am assuming are all too familiar to ladies - that of simply going to the bathroom. For me, it's a complete strip down as our sit down for men rule means this is the easiest, the more layers the more complex. However in my foulie trousers, the leggings are a real boon. I am still very scared of what colder weather might come and one of my big, big fears is the cold and wet on other legs. I am going to go shopping in Cape Town to make sure I have everything for the next leg, I hope they have merino or bamboo pants too - a real boon.

So more sailing and hopefully a picture or two to go along with this, it was noticed that Greenings was slowing down so a thorough exam of the hull was done. We were trailing a tonne of weed (assumed to be South Atlantic Bladder Wrack) and not good for boat speed so having videoed the evidence off the end of a boat hook, it was decided it had to come off as performance was degraded. After drawing lots Skipper Andy was nominated to perform the cutting of duties, so armed with or most vicious boat hook he was supported over the side to cut away the weed. After a few miles at 1/2 knots we were back up to speed. We were at this time in the Sprint and in Stealth mode so no-one could really see what we were doing.

Having completed the Sprint in the night we are now settled back onto the last miles to Cape Town. Greenings is flying the spinnaker again and everyone is retraining on this, helms and pit crew, we can now see the end of this second crossing of the Atlantic and are looking forward to R&R in South Africa.