Race 12 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 12, Day 12: New York to Derry-Londonderry
08 July

Wear and Tear,

Having been away from the UK for the best part of eleven months, ware and tear is happening in many places, what I am going to blog about are the human aspects and of course for me the sails, in particular the spinnakers.

As a RTWer I am feeling it being away from home for so long and the living on Visit Seattle. For me the watch system, not getting more then about four hours sleep in a block for the most part of the time at sea has effected my tiredness levels and makes me crave a good eight hours sleep in a comfy bed.

It is also takes it toll on the body in the ways of your muscles, you use more of your upper body for balance grinding and moving about at an angle, and your leg muscles and cardio I've found have become weaker due to it being a 70ft length for us to move around, no running or for me long walks in the countryside.

The spinnakers (aka codes) that have been with us all the way are starting to feel it to with all the UV rays they are soaking up and the repairs that myself, Phil and the rest of the crew have done, every collapse and bangs they get when they refill with wind put a great strain on each one so much so that we are checking them the whole time, and in the first repairs done in Punta seem to be giving up in places.

Phil and I checked them over before leaving New York for this crossing, but every time they are flown in the past few day another hole is found, which results in spinnaker drop repair done and re-popper before bagging and putting back on deck to be re-flown. This has resulted in a lot of time being spent below deck on the sewing machine. Oh and between all these little repairs we where working on a big code1 blown up spinnaker with meters and meters mending (all completed now by the sail repair team). I feel there will be a big spinnaker checking session in Derry-Londonderry for them to get us that short distances to race finish in Liverpool.

So to sum up I feel that the last push to Liverpool (fingers crossed a podium place) is doable but those spinnakers I think will be ready for retirement, and as for me, I'm ready to move on to new challenges, and to the reality of real life and earning some pennies.

Lizzie Howe