Race 2 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Race 2, Day 5
20 September

Rick Whitehouse
Rick Whitehouse
Back to Reports View Team Page

I can definitely say that this race is living up to all my expectations, even though there is so much yet to come. We had a baptism of fire in the English Channel and the Bay of Biscay, and now we are enjoying downwind sailing conditions in various wind strengths along the Moroccan coast. Visit Sanya, China has a great crew and most of the time we get along. Our three watch system is working to a treat, for myself anyway. It does mean you do the same thing at the same time. So for Ollie, Carl and myself it is on deck from 0400 to 0800, 0800 to 1200 support watch if needed on deck, bake a cake and cook lunch, 1200 to 1600 ‘free time’, 1600 to 2000 on deck, 2000 to 0400 sleep. For the other half of our watch in Michelle, Dennis and Ivy it is the same time on deck but the reverse sleep cycle. The yacht is run on UTC time so as we traverse the lines of longitude we will get to see different times of the day.

Currently we are in a good position in the race and likely to be sitting in the top three and running down the coast under the Code 2 Spinnaker and full main. Our Skipper Seumas and Jorge’s tactics seem to be paying off and hopefully we can minimise our errors, and keep up the good boat speed. They both instil confidence in the crew, even if you have to something scary like putting a reef in, in the main downwind in 40 knots of breeze.

I had my own personal fun two mornings ago, when a batten pocket on the mainsail was had come untied. I was sent up the leech of the sail on a halyard with a pulley attaching me to the topping lift and re-tied the batten pocket. It’s only possible to have a go (sorry for the Aussie slang) at such things when you have people around you, you know they are going to keep you safe. My kids will be shocked on this one as they believe I have a fear of heights.

Looking forward to the next 39000 miles.