Race 2 - Day 3
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 3: Punta del Este to Cape Town
07 October

Well, you possibly need to know a little more about the technical aspects of racing yacht sailing and today I would like to explain the "letterbox drop". This describes two things on the boat. The first is how we get the spinnaker down. You remember the spinnaker - fractious temperamental baby, needs watching all the time and is mostly very naughty. The other thing to remember about the spinnaker is that it really, really likes flying. So, it puts up a struggle when you try and bring it down and to help us we use the fact that the mainsail of the boat is not attached to the boom (horizontal stick which comes off the mast) except at the front and the back. Thus, there is a "letterbox" between the mainsail and the boom through which we can theoretically thread the spinnaker by means of a string tied to one of its corners, killing its spirit and making it amenable to being smothered and then wrapped up down below.

The spinnaker does not see it like this. It sees the letterbox drop as its opportunity to drag the four or five biggest people on the boat who have been commissioned to control it, back through the letter box so they can be flung out to sea (One of the reasons we wear tethers is to save us from the ministrations of our sails). The ensuing struggle can be of epic proportions.

However, there is another letterbox drop which is a part of our life. If you have a high side bunk, this does not mean you are privileged - far from it. It means that your bunk is on the highest side of the heel and, if flat, would slope alarmingly downwards leaving you mostly on the floor and not in bed. Not satisfactory. To counteract this, we pivot the bunks upwards towards the wall so we cannot roll out and also use a cloth to create a little cocoon. Safe and secure we are. However, this act of cranking up the bunk means that there is precious little head room between it and whatever is above it, leaving, you've guessed it, a letter box through which we must drop after each shift.

You do it largely by trying to get a knee onto the bunk - trying, in my case whimpering all the while - and then you launch yourself in a magnificent belly flop forwards through the letterbox hoping you get adequately far inside that you can roll in and get your cloth up before the boat lurches and out you go again. It is far from dignified - but we are getting better at it.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Alison Ryan