Race 2 - Day 22
Crew Diary - Race 2, Day 22
07 October
My Dad’s birthday and something a little scary yet exhilarating
My Dad turned 82 today. He taught me how to sail dinghies back on Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne Australia. He taught me all the basics of sailing including quite a deal about sail trimming and everything he has taught me is coming in handy. He is certainly part of my inspiration for taking part in this race.
Our morning watch was a very light wind affair just trying to keep the boat moving. The breeze headed us untoward the end of the watch and we raised the staysail and put in a tack.
Within 30 minutes of our watch, the wind was howling. We went back up as support watch to reef the main. I went up the mast with Ollie to connect the handy billy and signalled a one back to Seumas to which he nodded, though I was sceptical about that being enough, and the team put in reef 1. The gunwales were still a foot or more under with the reef in, and we had stayed on deck so within minutes we were back up putting in the second reef.
The next episode was a little scary, though I maintain that a healthy amount of fear is a good thing. The yacht was clearly overpowered and we were called back up on deck to drop the Yankee 2. For some reason, I managed to get myself to the front the line going up the foredeck. I think all of us up there were wondering how this was going to play out, and how we were going to get it down with the extreme angle of heel. Shortly after clipping to the spare tether at the pulpit, I sensed that the bow in the air over a large wave and I instinctively grabbed the guard rails firmly. Next thing I was completely immersed in water, the force of which was trying to wash me out of the yacht. I was relieved not to have become a tethered man overboard. The Yankee was difficult to get down as it just wanted to reinflate but eventually with Ollie's and my weight on it, it started to drop and rest of the procedure was as straightforward as it could be under the prevailing conditions.
The wind moderated later and both reefs were shaken out and the Yankee re-hoisted. Finally the wind shift we were awaiting arrived and the Code 2 Spinnaker was raised. Our afternoon watch was a frustrating one trying to keep on course with a large sea and light airs, but the wind did fill in at the end of watch at 15 to 20 knots and we made some more pleasant progress. We are still in a close battle with Qingdao for first and I guess we just have to minimise our errors and wait to see whose tactics will win through over the next few days.