Race 12 - Day 10
Skipper Report
06 July
Hello Team,
Well it’s “Fizz Friday” again already, with potentially only one more at sea until the fleet arrives in Liverpool. So how are you doing? Pleased with the way the week has gone and approaching the weekend with a “I deserve a bit of me time?” I know I am fairly lucky to be at sea this time, while Lorraine does the final packing, as we move this coming Monday. Clearly that's the Royal “we” as I am in no position to help at all from this end. I have a feeling there will be a bit of a “to do list” and some making amends upon my return.
The last day has been somewhat frustrating as we appear to have had the exclusive rights to two wind holes and then kept pace with a somewhat fluky transition. It started so well yesterday morning, with the Code 3 (heavyweight spinnaker) up and reaching speeds of 16 knots. We then hit our first wind hole and wind shift putting us back to white sails. Then back to the Code 2 (mediumweight spinnaker), another wind hole, wind shift back to white sails. We are currently with the Code 2 but the winding is dying away and I think the Windseeker might well have a walk on part shortly. The wind has veered from 165º to 325º over the course of the day and has now backed to 260º. All this has challenged the helms and it is great to see two newcomers step up and become additional resilience to the core of helms that can deal with difficult conditions, Great work from Bruno and Ross.
With all this going on we have seen the fleet disappear over the horizon and looking at the forecast a large area of high pressure developing between us and the finishing line. Thankfully it’s not looking to established itself there too long, or there might be an additional “Fizz Friday” at sea.
The general weather has been overcast and occasional drizzle, but the good news is as we get nearer Europe and further north (earlier we were at the same latitude as Land’s End), the hours of darkness lessen and it is already light with the pre dawn here. We are now also officially UTC-1 for local time.
So Thomas and Tessa staffed the galley over the last 24 hours and did a great job. The brownies maintaining their inspirational influence, with a choice of puddings being served up at dinner time. Rice pudding or peaches and custard (custard two days running, at this rate we'll have completed an ocean crossing and put on weight.) Now lunch was another matter. I was asked upon arrival to the galley at lunch time, would I like a bacon and cranberry parcel, which sounded interesting and tasty. However upon being served my “parcel”, it suspiciously looked liked a wrap that had been folded into a square and baked. It also strangely tasted like a baked wrap. I don't know, maybe it's after 30 years of upholding the Queen's Peace, but I think I might have been had over on the “parcel” front.
The other news is that after drifting apart, my sleeping bag and I are giving it a go again, as the temperature has dropped it has been great to get into a warm sleeping bag. There doesn't appear to be an issue that I have ignored it since Seattle, we have just carried on where we left off. Not quite sure how to broach the subject of post return to Gosport and what happens next. What do you think I should do?
So here are some stats for you to ponder over with a like glass of something at the close of play today. At 1400Z 050718 we had completed a 255nm (10.6kt average) 24hr run of which 250nm was DMG (98%) and we had 31% of our passage left to complete.
Oh did you know? The first sport to allow women and men to play alongside of each other was croquet.
Standing by this Channel-out
Dave