Race 6 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 6, Day 12
03 February

Philip Cledwyn
Philip Cledwyn
Team Punta del Este
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I’ve got an itch

It’s not very much of an itch but I need to scratch it and will do so soon.

While lying on deck this morning trimming the ‘Kite’ (spinnaker) in the splendour of the Pacific on our race to the Philippines, I looked across to check on the ‘tell tales’ on the staysail (the trailing indicators on the sails which help to achieve the optimum sail shape through diligent trimming), they all trailed back horizontally– perfect. It got me thinking about a nerdish statement I once heard along the lines that...‘if 99.9% of the components on the Saturn 5 rocket that went to the moon worked perfectly that would still leave over a 1000 ‘things’ that would fail.

And so it is with our ocean race. Like all massive challenges it is comprised of thousands of small component parts and because everything about an ocean race is extreme all those parts, (I include the crew) have to work perfectly to achieve the desired objective when tested under the most difficult conditions. Obviously, things do go wrong and that’s when plans, B, C & D and so on, come into play.

It’s remarkable to sail with a crew of such diverse skills and sailing experience and ingenuity. Much of everyone’s time is spent working around a situation that’s not what we wanted, lack of wind, unhelpful currents, unhelpful weather systems,the list goes on. We are dependent on the meteorology reports around which the planning and scheming begins but it’s almost a certainty that once the plan is actioned something will occur that will inspire yet another ingenious ‘workaround’. Ryan and Jeronimo are experts at this and it must be infectious because I’ve yet to hear anyone say, ‘we’re doomed’ or ‘there’s no way out of this’ – no sooner than the problem occurs -solutions are coming in from all directions!

Anyway, back to my itch. Closer inspection reveals something interesting festering between the little toe on my right foot and the toe next to it. We are working here at temperatures in the mid-90s and humidity at a similar percentage, this is the sort of environment that mushroom growers dream of! A rummage through my toilet bag produces the athletes’ foot stuff, a quick clean up and soon things will be back to normal. I don’t suppose this issue would have featured on NASA’s list of Saturn 5 potential issues, but an Apollo 13 style ‘Gosport, we have a problem’ has been avoided - off now to dodge the next one!

All good fun

Best

Pip

P.S.: All the best to all at home - Should’ve mentioned – the sailing is spectacular, having a ball!, I have an air conditioned en-suite room with sea view (or did I just dream that)?