Race 9 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Race 9, Day 4
13 March

Pescatore Phil would be happy here. We are slowly making progress through a ‘light patch’. Code, I think, for yet another wind hole! Two sprints into a three sprint triangular race we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The new crew is settling into on board routine and getting used to the limited space for yourself and your gear. When we get some wind we’ll see how well it copes with a bit of heel.

Silver linings abound – time for practice transferring sheets and a number of successful rolling hitches. A brief discussion on prusik knots and the old tack line of the anti wrap net has now been spliced into a ring for just such a purpose. Locked burys in two directions with tapers. A teaser for later photos.

Personally I’ve had the opportunity to play with the sextant again and dig out the tables. My first sights on stars (Altair this morning at dawn) and planets (Venus at dusk) will be interesting as I will need to use whole new parts of the tables. Thankfully there are a number of phone apps that are helping me at the minute. The excellent Nautical Almanac to check my numbers after I’ve calculated them, and Google SkyMap to confirm star ID as I didn’t pre calculate.

With time on our hands and as we approach the Ides of March, I’ve been recalling some poetry and playing with some Haiku so I offer :

Seeks out Adventure

Circumnavigates Planet

Ocean Yacht Racer

Or at an oblique for the race and other things; Ogden Nash’s “My Dream”

This is my dream,

It is my own dream,

I dreamt it.

I dreamt my hair was kempt.

Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.

Best Wishes to all

Happy Birthday Jane.

James A.