Race 2 - Day 15
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 15: Punta del Este to Cape Town
19 October
Ramblings from the South Atlantic
As we near the end of the leg I decided to skip tales of kindness (too many) and ramble instead.
Firstly, how empty this ocean is. Until last night, when we passed a tanker, for 3,200 nautical miles we hadn't seen any other vessels with the exception of our three day sparring match against Garmin who also eventually deserted us. Despite the vastness of the ocean as we entered the South Atlantic, another tanker, who I assume had lost the 'steering remote control', twice asked us to alter course to allow him to manoeuvre. We obliged once to his satisfaction, since we are reasonable and he is 900 feet long versus our 70, but the second request prompted our skips to educate the master in the Maritime Rules of the Road - “You are a powered overtaking vessel and we are under sail”. I guess either that worked or once 'Game of Thrones' had finished the remote was found, since he managed a 90 degree turn north without our help. As an aside, he was doing only 13 knots versus our 12.5 knots so it could have taken him a little time to overtake.
Also, what is amazing is that you would expect a clear route from continent to continent yet someone put the 20 square mile Gough Island right in our path which became a night time magnet for the helm (see yesterdays blog).
Doing only one sail change and one gybe in two weeks leaves plenty of time to gaze the expansive ocean which is actually not so empty. It is full of bird life of all sizes. Small ones that seem to have to flap like crazy to fly and the larger dudes that effortlessly glide in the wind skimming the waves flipping into the sky and retracing their fight path with hardly the flicker of a feather. Real 'Jonathan Livingstone Seagulls'. During the night they appear like ghosts across the bow. What they are doing I knew not. Rarely do you see them swimming and never diving to catch something. What keeps them going. This mystery revealed itself one morning during the deck walk (when we check for wear and tear) when three squid were found on the foredeck. Unlike the coastal scavengers we get back home, there was no mad rush or interest to hoover up these easy pickings when discarded overboard.
Skipper Andy Woodruff (aka Wouldn't Reef') has given us only three tips to be competitive whilst he plays computer games in the Nav Station:
1.Steer straight – which has been challenging
2.Trim – constantly – 'Trim to win'
3.Sleep high – nothing to do with the weed found on our rudder but hot bunking on high side of boat.
With the watch system continually rotating you in and out of bed, getting up at 0300 on a wet, cold and windy night can be tough. It is here we must remind ourselves of the shark moto.
“Do sharks complain it's Monday morning. NO. They are out chasing stuff, biting s**t, being scary and reminding everyone the are f***ing sharks.”
With Dare to Lead on the horizon, to deliver our best performance in reaching Cape Town we must remind ourselves that we are sharks.
Two weeks lost at sea.
Richard