Race 3 - Day 18
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 18: Cape Town to Fremantle
18 November
Now on Day 18, Team Nasdaq is facing one of the greatest challenges of the Clipper Race: rationing. In pre-race planning, our victuallers (Peter Speight, Clare Lavin and Jon Wedgwood) do their best to predict how fast we will consume Nutella and other essentials of life, and buy accordingly. We don't have enough space or budget to buy lots of extras, so careful buying is essential.
The spectre of rationing looms over the boat from Day 1, but has now materialized as follows:
Milk powder: the crew outwitted the victuallers on this one, by mixing extra-rich breakfast milk and blowing through a four-week supply in two weeks. We have one bag of milk powder left. This has created a desperate situation where those who normally drink three to four cups of “white” tea daily cannot do so. Since our British crew members require frequent cups of tea in order to function at the most basic level, those of other nationalities have had to step up their work.
Baby wipes: even though the allowance was three wipes per day per person, somehow we went through 20 packs in the past week and are now down to one pack per day. We won't be smelling individual crew members to ascertain the Freshness Quotient and thus identify the culprit, so we are relying on honesty and integrity in baby wipe use. Don't get too close when we arrive in Fremantle.
Honey: we're scraping out the end of the last bottle. Our good Lancashire honey from our resident beekeeper Andy Greenough (RTW) disappeared long ago and we have no reserve. Golden Syrup is stepping up to take its place.
Hot chocolate: long gone. Too many cold wet nights on deck.
Delicious high-priced fancy instant coffee in sachets (mocha, cappuccino, latte): dubbed “posh” coffee by Pam Truman (Legs 2,8), this disappeared long ago.
Biscuits: we're down to one packet per watch per day. Even the ginger nuts that left Gosport with us have been eaten. We look forward to Tim Tams in Australia!
Mango chutney: gone weeks ago.
The good news: normally, on arriving in Australia, crews have to throw away food that is prohibited entry. We won't have anything left to throw away! We're going to end up eating even the last of the canned food that left Gosport with us in early August, including four tins of hot dogs, and several tins of fruit cocktail. We do have enough rice, tomatoes, cornflakes, and granola that we will not starve, but the last few days will not be pretty! (The victuallers are holding back enough supplies to make birthday cakes for Andy and Clare, do not worry.)
In other news, controversy has erupted over the CV31 Racing Headsail Challenge. In this event, the watches compete against each other to change out our Yankee headsails as quickly as possible. A quick and efficient sail change means a safer sail change! Previously, Starboard watch with our leader Simon Jones (Leg 3; Clipper 09-10 Legs 5-8 with Team Cape Breton) set a time of 14 minutes 30 seconds for a change from Yankee 2 to the largest Yankee 1. Port watch with their leader Damien Egan (RTW) then claimed a new record of 12 minutes 20 seconds for a change from Yankee 3 to Yankee 2. This claim was instantly challenged by Starboard watch, who assert that the comparison was not fair since we were working with much larger sails, and the Y2 had been up for four days making the sheets more difficult to change out. We will be taking up this matter with the Race Committee.
Finally, we thank all our family and friends who support us in this adventure. When I followed my partner on the last race on this same leg, there were many times when I worried about what was going on on the boat. Reading daily crew diaries was one way to feel reassured and to feel that everything was OK. As a crew member this time, it has been deeply frustrating to not be able to get our crew diaries to you regularly and reliably. We have had ongoing computer problems which fortunately affect only our email; they do not affect any of the essential boat functions. We write blogs every day, but they don't get to you on time. Please know that we think of you often, we miss you, and we look forward to our time together again. And we deeply appreciate your thoughts, prayers, support, and help.