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

Double wrap as night watch treat and signs of civilisation...

You feel like you have just fallen asleep after three hours on watch and a further three hours of support watch under deck, when a fellow crew mate wakes you up again – your three hours off-watch gone in a blink of an eye.

Still feeling totally groggy you get up, however at least it is still nicely warm outside in these latitudes, so you do not need to change or put on lot of clothes. When getting on deck, you also recognise the stars are shining bright in all their glory and the moonlight makes working on deck a pretty nice thing. So, apart from being still half asleep, what can possibly go wrong?

As every time you might be thinking that: A lot mate, a lot!

About one and a half hours into the watch the decision is made: We need to gybe. The mainsail usually does not create any problems during this evolution, but the spinnaker, we are currently flying the Code 2, is always a (partly) unknown factor of the equation.

Everybody and everything is properly prepared with wind speeds of 15+ knots and boat speeds up to 12 knots when we finally hear the command: ‘ready to gybe’ and ‘helm to weather’. The first few seconds of the evolution are calm and peaceful as the late night ocean scenery – before moments later hell breaks loose:

The start is marked by the sound of the active spinnaker sheet running off its winch a bit too fast... actually way too fast. Moments later, you hear the 200 square meter spinnaker flogging in the darkness of the night, like a thunderstorm out of nowhere and the spinnaker sheets flying through the air and into the sea, creating fountains of spray wherever they hit.

For a split second, actually a beautiful, nearly picturesque view, like King Neptune himself is swinging his whip of wrath over our boat, creating a romantic picture of beauty when it reminds you of how small we can be compared to the forces of nature – or, more precisely, those of an ocean racing yacht.

Just another few seconds later, it turns out that things will take some more effort in order to regain control of the situation, as the spinnaker wraps around both, the inner and the outer forestay. Actual comments of the crew on this situation are left to the imagination of the reader… however, with a lot of skill, from the Skipper and crew, as well as a big portion of luck, we manage to untangle the spinnaker - just as it collapses again and wraps a second time…! Moments later, it feels like hours, we are able to free the sail a second time and finally get it under control again, what a hell of a crew!

As we check that nothing is damaged and everything is back in its place, we finally settle into our flow of the graveyard watch until 0300 again. Tiredness? Gone!

About seven hours later, we are back on watch again. Totally different scenery: the sun has come out, bright reflections from the sea require you to wear sunglasses and lots of sunscreen. The wind and waves are still nice and stable, allowing surfs up to 15 knots of speed. We are making some progress here!

After about two hours into the morning watch, it is finally here: Land ho! We are approaching the island of Lanzarote, the first place of civilisation since we left Portimãoabout four days ago, it rather feels (and smells) like four months. A place with sandy beaches, cold beers and restaurant with a menu to chose from…! This reminds me of the cruise back in March, when we visited the island for the last time for holidays.

However, the daydream ultimately bursts when we hear the well known command again: ‘Ready to gybe’ and ‘Helm to weather’… Right, we are not going to make landfall here – now I remember.

The evolution goes all well, as we are pros now :-) , and the island slowly disappears in our again, and as it was showing up before… just about 4,700 nm or three more weeks to go until Uruguay - what can possibly go wrong?