Race 5 - Day 9
Crew Diary - Race 5 Day 9
01 January

After weeks of cold and intense weather on Leg 3, the experience of racing on Leg 4 is almost a vacation – almost. Gone are the giant breaking waves that splash down the companionway. The steep, breaking mountains of water that made for gorilla grip helming and wild surfing have been replaced with long rolling hills that gently drive the boat forward without the constant dousing. We don’t get the ‘yee-haw’ speeds over 20 knots, but the challenge of sail trim, driving a straight line and gently coaxing us onto a wave to push our boat speed beyond the wind speed gets nearly as many grins.

Then there’s the routine; this has not changed. The two-watch schedule with short sleep cycles still creates droopy eyes and short tempers between 0200 and 0600. Bizarre, vivid dreams are the other biproduct of sleeping for just four hours at a time. Warm feelings of galloping a horse across a field of daisies, or living in some ridiculously opulent home are ripped away with the clatter of a winch grinding just inches from your head and your 20 other crewmates chatting, dressing, eating, stumbling by your tiny bunk and reminding you that this reality is not a vacation. We are racing and we have 1,250 miles to go.