Race 6 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Race 6 Day 5: Hobart to Whitsundays
10 January

Leg 4 Part 3, Hobart to Airlie Beach, sold as the recovery cruise up to the paradise islands of the Whitsundays in sunny Australia, after the drama and challenges of the Southern Ocean legs and the notorious Rolex Sydney/Hobart race.

Just that it took 6 days of grey skies, high winds on the nose, low winds on the nose, no-winds from anywhere, black star-less nights and one wild midnight squall complete with 45 knots of wind and spectacular lightning show, to get to that postcard perfect spot - today we finally found those sunny blue skies, 20 knot southerly winds and long following swells of the Australian promise, as we race along under Code 2 spinnaker, pointing directly north to our destination, or 100% VMG in our boat dialect!

A chance to catch our breath, dry out, and discover what our crew mates actually look like outside of their standard red Clipper foulies. In most cases a somewhat bedraggled sight of much-leaner-than-before ocean racing athletes, sporting a combination of designer brand underwear, pyjamas, cut-off-T-shirts and non-descript head gear on deck, in lesser combinations when below, all perfectly normal in the world of Team PSP Logistics.

We keep things simple, but effective on PSP Logistics. Only 2 rules, rule one being paramount and well known to all who sail on this team, and rule two to avoid all wind holes. It's a culture of no blame for inevitable transgressions, except if the transgressor is Australian, British, American, Norwegian or South African, in which case a policy of positive cultural re-education applies, of which long hours of sail repair on the lawn at the next stopover is a common example.

Suffice to state that there have been no trangressions of major significance on this Leg so far, despite a few off-course helming misdemeanours by the opposite watch, a near miss when the luff line of the Code 2 spinnaker parted company with the sail threatening entanglement with any of sail, forestays or spreaders, and the usual high jinks in the galley and bunks down below.

Our proactive response to the approaching squall (mentioned above) reflects the progress this team has made sailing 20,000 miles from Liverpool - depowering the sail plan in the sudden rising conditions under the calm leadership of Skipper Matt, gave the on-deck watch an opportunity to witness nature at it best, catching glimpses of the wind, waves, rain, sails, boat and crew in the strobe-like flashes of lightning against the otherwise pitch black darkness, freezing crew in moments of high action against the wild backdrop of the storm conditions. Exhilarating in the moment, a memorable sailing experience in hindsight, and not a single transgression of rule one through the series of evolutions completed under extreme conditions by all of the foredeck, cockpit and helm teams!!

For now, we have our postcard horizon of blue skies, and a thousand miles remaining to get back up the leaderboard in this race. Watch this space.

Michael Duffy

PSP Logistics