Race 2 - Day 7
Crew Diary - Race 2, Day 7
22 September
That’s Sailtainment!
I was awoken at 5:20am having fallen asleep in the galley towards the end of an exhausting Mother Watch shift. Joe and I decided to surprise the team by cooking the bacon saved from the lunch menu and serve it with our freshly baked bread – yummy bacon butties, a much welcome treat and a far cry from the porridge that had been on the menu everyday since leaving Portimao! Everyone was grateful for their little treat. YES, mother watch was finally over and the kitchen was closed (until lunch!)
Now off watch, I clambered into my bunk, right now this was as good as any 5* hotel room. I heard talking at around 11:30am. I am sure someone asked me a question, or was I still dreaming? I felt I was drifting in and out of consciousness, the same feeling you get when you come around after a general anesthetic, only this was just sheer exhaustion and dehydration – another lesson learned: drink, drink, drink plenty of water! I downed a bottle of water and filled another with the addition of a Berrocca. This would give me the energy to face the day ahead, or what was left of it in any case. One afternoon shift and one night shift to go.
The buzz words in the world of retail and leisure are Retailtainment and Eatertainment – and now I have made up a new one: Sailtainment. This afternoon was full of entertainment which lingered into the evening, just what I needed… and what an afternoon it was.
We were surfing the waves at a good speed when we noticed what looked like loads of black fins in the distance. We woke Ian, the skipper, who was taking his much needed nap – although he was insistent on being woken in the event of anything unusual or any signs of other boats. It quickly came to light that it was an armada of small fishing boats anchored with their nets ready for the day’s catch. They were old, small fishing boats, bobbing up and down the strong waves. The fisherman waved to us as we carved our way through the middle of the fleet. It’s probably not very often they encounter a 70 foot racing yacht steaming through the middle of their tiny boats! We then held our course, still mesmerised by the 12 West Saharan fishing boats providing entertainment to the Cef Watch.
We always have plenty of tales to tell the Uni Watch, who are always in awe of our spottings, in sharp contrast to their shifts of evolutions and natureless watches. Cef have been blessed with nature since leaving Portimao and it was just about to get better; a fanfare of dolphins surrounded the boat, gliding through the transparent waters before gracefully porpoising in and out of the water to our delight, under the boat, below the bow, they seemed to love the wash the boat made and we were entertained once again by their graceful elegance and effortless performances, we were truly blessed.
Andrew Eells of Uni Watch wrote a limerick on behalf of their natureless activity:
Their was a young man Alex Cass
Who went to sea for a gas
He spent a year on the Clipper
But never saw Flipper
ALL the dolphins were hiding en masse.
That wasn’t the end of the entertainment. The wind picked up quickly and suddenly without any warning the boat was overpowered, and before Ian our skipper could do anything the boat was on its side, flat on the water at a 60 degree angle with water gushing over the guardrail below. An adrenaline rush for those on deck and a rude awakening for those below, especially the mothers with all the pots and pans flying around and landing on poor Thom! This was one of the scariest moments I’ve experienced in sailing, but Ian quickly regained control and all was safe and no one was hurt. What an adventurous afternoon, although it wasn’t to stop there.
Following dinner, our night shift resumed at 11pm, and shortly after we were settled on deck for what is known as the graveyard shift: total darkness and very eerie without a fall moon or shining stars. Ursi, who was sat in a world of her own, suddenly got walloped by a flying fish and wondered what had hit her!
Anthonie went down below to make hot drinks for the night shift when he found a baby bird. We are not quite sure how it got there, but he gently picked it up and brought it on deck in the palm of his hand. It was cute but looked dazed and helpless, so Anthonie and I brought it back down below deck and gave it some sugared water in case it was dehydrated. I gently rubbed it on to its beak and then we made a comfortable bed out of an Aldi bag, turning it over to form a safe place where I lay my cosy, fluffy snood in the bottom and we placed the tiny creature softly down, carried it on deck and placed it under the cuddy alongside the entrance to the galley. Within minutes it must have composed itself, and off it flew back into the darkness from where it came. I felt it was a good luck sign, but regardless it was a wonderful ending to a sailtaining day at sea – let’s see what tomorrow brings...