Race 3 - Day 2
Skipper Report
02 November

Well, what a day we had yesterday, some of you may have been wondering at our slightly strange course that lasted most of the day...

Once the wind picked up after our light start, the sailing was good and soon we had a couple of reefs in the mainsail, as well as our smallest Yankee, the Yankee 3, which enabled us to hold a good line towards the Cape of Good Hope.

As the sun started to rise, the wind grew fickle and numerous occasions we were stuck in a wind hole, invariably meaning the boats behind being able to catch up, while the boats ahead could pull away which can be very frustrating, but it happens to us all.

In one such wind hole we had noticed that one of our reefing lines had severe chafe, and, if had to be used again, would undoubtedly fail so the on watch set about untying it from where it's anchored on to the boom.

While the repair was being made, the wind without warning and unexpectedly, went from 5 knots to 40 knots in the blink of an eye, bearing in mind we had full sail up at the time, it’s safe to say the boat didn't appreciate this at all and complained profusely by leaning over on her side with all the guard wires underwater. The crew did a great job but because we had to have the mainsail flogging so much, the loose reefing line made a knot of itself around the remaining reefing lines, essentially preventing us from reefing down our mainsail. This left only one option and the crew did an heroic job in dropping down the whole mainsail.

Not easy with an angle of heel of 65 degrees! The minute the sail was down the wind started gusting even more and was reaching speeds of 50 to 60 knots, we bore away and dropped our Yankee, I decided to drop the staysail too as by that time we had seen 85 knots on the dial, and we still had a mainsail that wasn’t secured to anything to contend with.

The crew worked indefatigably and after many hours, we had our storm mainsail rigged and up, the mainsail lashed on to the boom and the outhaul end of the boom secured to the deck, as well as our storm jib flying. Invariably, shortly after this the wind had started to moderate and the damage to our race position has been done, all the crew were exhausted and I think special mention should go to round the world crew member Ryan Finlay and Leg 3 and 4 crew member Barnaby Webb who worked like heroes on the bow and the rest of the crew deserve a massive pat on the back for their excellent effort in getting control of our boat back.

We spent the remainder of the day with tri-sail and storm jib, as well as our staysail to give us extra drive as it was still very windy, in the region of 35 to 45 knots and with an exhausted and seasick crew, I thought prudent to stay with the reduced sail plan. Just before dinner time we had our mainsail back up and as I write, we have just completed getting our Yankee back flying so we are at racing pace again, I just have one thing to say to the rest of the fleet, besides wishing them well of course....we are coming.

Matt

ClipperTelemed+