Race 3 - Day 13
Crew Diary - Race 3 Day 13: Cape Town to Fremantle
13 November

Greetings all mighty PSP Logistics supporters and race tracker addicts.

Life onboard continues - eat, sleep, sail repeat. Having built a strong foundation in Leg 1 with a podium finish and battling adversity in Leg 2 en-route to Cape Town the mighty PSP Logistics team is coming on strong in Leg 3 and all are looking forward to the anticipated 'fruity' conditions and some downwind surfing towards Freo - but these are still to come. The cold weather has eased slightly and the temperature at the nav station has risen from 12°C a few days ago to a barmy 18°C.

Yesterday provided a raft of opportunities to change sails to make the most of the light and variable winds we have been experiencing. Having had a few days of 'plain sailing' on a broad reach, these light and shifting winds are proving a different kind of challenge, to make the best speed we can with what wind we have. The current motion would just a few days ago had me 'reaching' myself, but it is true - you do get over sea sickness, and I am still pinching myself that I can be on a boat that is pitching this way and that and enjoy my food!

We have moved far enough east to move the clocks forward another hour - so we are now GMT+5 - not that it makes a huge difference and as Matt the skipper pointed out, if we think it is getting too light at the 04h00 watch change we can just move the clock forward an hour on board - that's what I call flexi-time. Another time related activity is making a log entry. We record all manner of facts and figures - time (UTC and Local) Latitude, Longitude, compass course, course over ground, water speed, speed over ground (more please :)) log (nautical odometer) distance travelled since last log entry, wind direction, true wind speed and angle, apparent wind speed and angle, barometer - (currently 1018.4mb), sea state, cloud cover, visibility, notes of any changes made in the period, sail plan and other information besides. All this is recorded on a paper log while sat/jammed/wedged at the nav station. I learnt early on this trip that being wedged is important. While doing a log one night, the boat was struck by a wave on the beam and the boat lurched to port, I promptly shot sideways along the wooden painted seat, out of the entrance to the nav station without touching the sides before being delivered to the edge of the skippers bunk and then dropping to the floor with a thump. And there I sat, somewhat surprised and nursing a slightly sore left elbow, before gingerly getting up and back into the nav station, and jamming myself in to complete the task at hand. Since then, living a life on the lean has become normal, and making the ascent into a top bunk while heeled over at 45° by walking up the opposite wall and carefully launching yourself across and quickly raising the lee cloth to keep you in place, is just the norm.

Life is good onboard the mighty PSP Logistics and all the crew are well and in good spirits.

The adventure continues.

Daren Lemon

PSP Logistics