Forgive me blog readers for I have sinned, it has been 24 hours since my last blog. It has been a crazy 24 hours, too.
We have been pushing ourselves over the last few days and today we started to throttle back with the weather becoming less favourable. However, each time we depowered it never seemed to be enough and we would just go a bit faster instead. So, because we could not slow down, our eventual maximum 24 hour run peaked at 329 miles!
In the last 24 hours however we have had high winds, high seas, black nights, rain, copious amount of sea water thrown over us (somehow from both sides of the yacht and down from the bow) and someone put an island in our way.
There is pretty much only one thing that could have potentially been in our way between Punta del Este and Cape Town, yet somehow, we seemed to be drawn towards it: The island of Gough. We did pass 4.5 nautical miles north of it but with the heading and increasing winds I was starting to get nervous, partly because 4.5 miles seems too little distance after racing across 2,300 miles so far! So, what does the island look like? I have no idea as it was darker than Marmite out there.
Oh, and we nearly had a huge wipe out. Sailing along at 16-20 knots on the peak of a wave we change direction from the expected as the yacht started turning downwind. I fortunately was standing very close to the second helm station and grabbed the wheel thinking the helmsman had lost his way. I was able to return the yacht to course whilst looking up at the boom with the mainsail starting curl, possibly relying on its foreguys not to gybe. The steering cable had come off the quadrant and the yacht spinning into a crash gybe at those speeds a top a large wave would have been a worry. Thankful for a bit of luck and 2 wheels. The team quickly went about sorting it and now we have two working wheels again.
What a team, though. They just keep getting up and taking any challenge thrown at them. There has been some relentless helming where those involved have been helming heroes, but everyone in any role on board has got on with their tasks with a passion. Whatever the outcome of this leg, these guys are winners and it is a pleasure to be hurtling across the South Atlantic with them.
Andy
Humbled Skipper V3.0