Race 8 - Day 3
Skipper Report
07 March
Hello Team,
Are we well this “Northeast Monsoon Trade Wind” Wednesday? Well, just after sending yesterday's blog off to the lovely Clipper Race Media Team back in Blighty, I went up on deck for the daily meeting and there they were. (No, not the media team!) Lined up in a row, advancing towards us, a series of cumulus clouds, quite tightly spaced like a crowd walking towards a sporting stadium 40 minutes before kick-off. Above them mixed in were some layers of cirrocumulus up high looking in a hurry to be getting somewhere else, below which floated some altostratus, which might have tried for a ticket, if the price was right. Not sure if that's how the Clipper Race Meteorologist would have described it, but Simon was spot on with the Northeast Trades hitting when he said they would.
The daily team meeting was held, in which, the data recently updated from the spreadsheets was discussed, and setting the performance targets for the next 24 hours were put in place. [Does that sound familiar? All jobs are basically the same, it’s just the venues change and with some jobs the venue’s location change constantly ;-)]. Then it was a quick change down to the Yankee 2 and we were off and running. It is interesting to see the different tracking tactics begin to be played out. We are still sailing in company with Sanya Serenity Coast (morning Wendo - “How's the serenity?”), but we just don't seem to make any gains on the “Joker Card” playing crew. Whilst the GREAT Britain team is consistently sailing the AWA (Apparent Wind Angle) of 035 degrees and putting in the occasional reef, we see other Clipper 70s pop up on the AIS so no one has had a major break away from the fleet yet.
The crew are back into the watch routine now, although there has been a slight outbreak of “green watch” caused by the arrival of the Northeast Trade Winds. What has been impressive is that those suffering have found that “extra one percent” talked about yesterday, although it’s not always with grace. It’s hard to be graceful when suffering from seasickness. Also, there has been an outbreak of “Has anyone seen my…?”. It appears to be very contagious, and comes in many forms ranging from: “Has anyone seen my life jacket?” to “Anyone seen my sunglasses?”. Again it, must be an infection brought down with the north-easterlies. The down side is that I cannot find any of the missing kit for the Unicef bag, which is disappointing. It must be something to do with the 35 degree heel on the boat at the moment. Although Emma Kelly will be paying a £10 Unicef contribution for leaving her life jacket in the galley.
So, some exciting GREAT facts for your midweek coffee break, you'll be the centre of attention quoting these this morning; DTF: 1,280nm; last 24 hour we have made 123nm DMG, best SOG on this run to date: 11.8 knots. Oh, and did you know, a hedgehog's heart beats 190 times a minute. Its heartbeat drops to 20 beats per minute during hibernation.
Standing by the channel – out.
Dave