Race 14 - Day 2
Crew Diary - Race 14 Day 2
30 June
On day two of the Leg 8 race from New York to Derry-Londonderry, Qingdao conducted a serious fault. Yesterday our Skipper made a plan for the next 12 hours, which was to sail southeast, and when Qingdao reaches the centre of Gulf Stream, we turn to blend in the trend to sail north, with the steady current and wind conditions, we should keep in the lead and head for the Scoring Gate fast. Although early in the morning, when we found a speed decrease and woke up our Skipper, it was too late. We just missed the centre and the window for the turn was gone. By the time we turned, we just couldn’t catch the train and then a windless zone followed, and our speed dropped to 3 knots. Then we spent the whole day correcting this mistake trying to get back to the centre of the current, hoping that we wouldn’t fall too far behind Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam.
On the position update from 2pm, we found we were in tenth, Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam was in third, and Punta del Este was in eighth. What's soothing was the gap wasn’t great, if we don’t make the same mistake again, we should be able to catch up with them before the Scoring Gate. Racing is just like this, the less mistakes you make, the better chance you’ll have of winning. It was a frustrating day, but the crew on board were very happy as we saw the most marine mammals since the race started: say, two whales and four clusters of dolphins. Especially for those who newly joined the race, it’s their first-time having close contact with these large marine animals. Everyone was just excited, and the bad mood from the fault was just gone. This is a good sign for the team.
Although when looking at the wildlife in the ocean, I realised that the creatures in the Atlantic have a fear for humans. Most of the time, they kept a distance of at least one mile from us, at times when seeing them about to get closer to the boat, they suddenly swam off again. I know that this should be something that their elders taught them to do, also a proof that humans have done things wrong to the Atlantic. On the contrary, wildlife in the Pacific is more friendly and likely to approach us, it’s very regular to see them swim along with us for minutes. Wildlife encounters are also part of navigation cultures.