Race 4 - Day 27
Crew Diary - Race 4, Day 27
14 December
Ocean Sprint Success
There’s an air of satisfaction on board today, we’ve just finished the Ocean Sprint and if our calculations are correct, we’re fairly sure we have those three points in the bag! We’ve been sailing hard since leaving Cape Town, all determined to get in and have Race Start with the rest of the fleet, but to have the opportunity to show we’re still a fast boat compared to the rest is great, and a good morale booster for the crew. All things going smoothly we’re now projected to arrive 19th which is two days better than we originally forecast.
Those extra couple of days are extra sweet for me, as my parents are waiting in port - Mum, Dad see you soon! Sorry, I’m a bit delayed but I’ve heard reports you’ve been spending time in breweries so can’t be having an awful time. (I’ve been hankering for a roast veg lasagna or (and?) some of Dad’s roast potatoes if that’s a possibility…)
Despite a less than ideal start to this race I’ve been loving this leg, so far my favourite. We’ve had the big ocean waves and gusts of 76+ knots but it has also been way less miserable than I anticipated. We’ve even had moments Toño has turned to me and checked we’re not about to come upon the Cape Verde islands; glorious sunshine with music playing and crew even thinking about discarding base layers. That’s not to say it hasn’t been tough, growing up in the Northern hemisphere the south is always associated with warmth and easy living, but I think reaching nearly S45 degrees latitude has made me rethink that. Toño’s English phrase of the leg is ‘Freezing my … off’, pretty self explanatory if you haven’t heard it before. Fortunately, we’ve been heading north for a while now and the agility of people moving around deck has become noticeably better as layers have been peeled off and the Michelin man fashion seems to be fading.
There is however a downside to the temperature increase. The extra days in Cape Town meant people started doing steadily more land crazy activities, bungee jumping, paragliding, staying in expensive hotels and worst of all, in the final couple of days even I succumbed to Croc buying. As people start to ease off the boots, there has been a noticeable increase in offensive shoes, a multitude of coloured crocs, most of which have been embellished with pins that are steadily littering the deck. Nick Binks deserves a mention for some bizarre tie-dye elasticated sandals. I think it suffices to say Punta del Este needs to make sure to leave on time every other race start.
As my first and final blog for this leg, I just want to say big props to our Skipper and First Mate, Jeronimo and Ryan. They’ve done an incredible job at keeping the crew motivated and safe, allowing us to enjoy the Southern Ocean conditions in full.
They’ve trusted in the crew which has made my experience awesome. Whether I should respect or worry for them in regards to that, as can’t imagine there are many people that would let a sailor of four months, that insists on calling her watch the power rangers, starts every evolution with ‘Gladiators are you ready’ and is probably only understood about 60% of the time by fellow crew, have responsibility on a 70ft racing yacht.
Plus they just smashed the final bit of helming on the sprint, vagrant Ryan once more made an appearance on deck and Jero’s hair seems to have taken a detour from it’s usual perfectly styled do, which means you know they’ve given it their all. Cheers!
Vagrant Ryan