Race 7 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Fun and Games at 45 degrees
28 February

Fun and Games at 45 degrees

We are now in the Dell Latitude Rugged Ocean Sprint and as usual we are sailing with an intensity difficult to maintain long term. We are beating into the wind and with current behind us and have been sailing at an almost impossible apparent wind angle of 21 degrees.

I am sitting in the galley with my feet braced against the galley wall clutching the laptop with all my might. As usual with these conditions, life on board is full of entertainment.

Steph, who always claims to be of average height (in the UK) weighing in at a full 5 foot 3 inches, is on a top bunk. Last night, Pip sleeping like the dead, (unusually for him) on the bottom bunk, diagonally opposite, had a rude awakening. Steph, failing to make the dizzy heights of her bunk in her steep climb after a long and physically demanding watch, lost her footing and flew into Pips bunk.

‘Hi, Pip here. Anne has asked me to give details of the event from my perspective. As she has said I was deeply cosseted in the arms of Morpheus, fast asleep, dreaming. Away from the land of Nod Steph’s right foot had already started its journey towards my crotch. My sleep came to a rapid end as Steph arrived on top of me, I was still half asleep as Steph clambered off me. As we untangled, she asked if I was hurt not the usual question in such circumstances, I said I was fine and enquired if it was good for her also.

‘As she left I carried out an audit of my various body parts, Steph had fallen from about 1.5metres accelerating at a rate of 9.81metres per second/per second, I guess she arrived at about 10mph, the knee in my chest had left the only lasting wound – one I will treasure with fond memory.’

Christina, our 6-foot Spanish goddess and most capable sailor, added gymnastics to her retinue when grinding on the traveller winch with all her might, so hard in fact, that the winch handle flew out of the winch. Those in the nav station just saw a spectacular pair of legs cartwheeling over the traveller. This caused much hilarity all round.

Earlier on, the race started with little wind and this saw us hoisting Helen, our resident police officer, up the mast in search of wind. To her delight she could see that the other boats had no wind while we had a full 5 knots!

We have also had local fishermen come along the back of the boat and try to sell us fish. We have enough flying fish on deck!

After 25,000 miles we are still having a ball.

Love to all

Anne