I said I wasn’t going to do a blog, yet here I am sitting in the nav station typing one.
The days are rolling into one, so I’ll try to summarise.
Day 1, long period of motoring from Seattle to the Le Mans start. I was tasked with cookie duties that day whereby the wind and seas picked up. From there, things turned a little bit green for me. I could only watch the start from the back of the boat, sometimes slumped on the deck like our MOB dummy Bob.
At times all I could think about was an Instagram reel of Miriam Margolyes. Whereby she quotes some very fitting expletives to how I felt. It's the one where she’s in a waterpark or similar, look it up!
Day 2, into Day 3 I’m on a night shift (they call it a watch but whatever ;)) The seasickness is abating, and Hannah says the weather is going to get a bit spicy! I’m not sure how she likes her curry, but I opted for a Balti-style strength. Sadly, this wasn’t the case. I would put it at more vindaloo spiciness. We had to do a wonderful change of sail from the Yankee 2 to the Yankee 1 in the pitch black, with waves bouncing over the bow, oh and also put a reef in beforehand. During all of this, I finally saw my first bioluminescence which was awesome. After the shift was done (watch, whatever) I felt pretty awesome even though it was still a bit green. Later, the promises of ‘it's all downhill racing from here’ were finally realised. The spinnakers started flying and life was a lot more comfortable.
Days 4 and 5 consisted of bailing out the boat (I was on bilge duty) putting up a spinnaker Code 3, to then drop the spinnaker which we hoisted as it was actually a Code 1… whoopsie! Anyway, we have the right one now as I sign off and head to bed. I shall be gently rocked from side to side, with the sound of gentle waves lapping at the boat. That last sentence was a lie - lol.
Love and hugs to you all, missing you loads xxx