Race 7 - Day 10
Crew Diary - Race 7, Day 10
04 March

Annette Rolfe
Annette Rolfe
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Mother watch is something when the boat is heeled, but it is something else entirely when it is heeling from one side to the other. With my first mother watch this race being in the calm waters around Luzon, I had hoped I’d gotten away with the hard days, at least this time. No such luck, I had landed on a good-un: the Luzon Strait with excellent winds to give us the boost we need to get down the coast, but a rocky road for those preparing the meals.

At 0500, my bunk buddy, Tom and I were on target for breakfast. It’s an easy one, the success factor being speed, as most want to get up on deck as soon as possible or hit their bunks without too much delay. We know each other so well at this point that I can pretty much prepare the PB&J; the peanut butter toast; and the one Vegemite for savoury and one marmalade for sweet orders as their owners emerge. I know the peppy morning people and those who prefer no eye contact before 1000 and we try to make the day start in the best way possible for everyone.

After we cleared up, Tom went for 40 winks having been up for the night shift and I got some alone time in the galley with my favourite podcast and made up the yoghurt for tomorrow’s breakfast, the cake for midnight snack and loaves of bread for lunch to replace the wraps that have dominated this races lunchtime. The mother watch challenges build. The weather got progressively heavier and by lunchtime Tom and I were half cooking, half holding on to bowls, cutlery, chopping boards, as the swell took the boat. I put myself in a backstay guard position, but even so we lost a bowl of chopped onions to the starboard bilges - sorry who’s ever on bilges today! The temperature of the galley continued to rise during the day, and we have to remind ourselves to drink water as we would on deck. Reaching the upper compartments of the galley requires using the bottom ones as rungs on a ladder. Stabilised across the galley, with a foot either side, I can root around for the ingredients we’re looking for and we have to time our movements with those of the boat. Being inside the galley at this point is certainly like being shaken in a washing machine, and a note to self to buy some additional galley padding to minimise the bruises!

No sooner had we finished lunch, than we started preparation for dinner and we had only just completed washing up. Now about 1900, we heard the call for all hands to take down the Kite. Tom and I grabbed our life jackets and headed up to form the end of the line bear hugging the Kite and joining in with the “two, six, heave”. The rain poured down, with Tom and I in only our galley shorts and t-shirts, but hey I needed a shower at this point. Sometime later we prepare hot drinks for everyone soaked through.

Now as the ongoing watch prepare themselves, we help them with their full foulies, untwisting lifejackets and filling water bottles. They each take a deep breath as they head up, and I must admit feeling a bit envious of tackling such fruity weather, after all, I need the practice for leg 6. I could just head up with them, but mother watch duties called and then after and almost 18 hour day in the galley, I needed some rest. Tomorrow would be a whole new day with new sailing challenges. And mother watch would belong to someone else for the next seven days.