AQP Blog
After about a week on the same tack, the weather decided to change it up a bit yesterday and put us on the other one. After gybing north to create a bit more of an angle for ourselves, we had just under two hours of waiting for a big wind shift until the wind duly played its part and veered from 250 to 010 true wind direction in one clean swing. This brought us very abruptly back onto the easterly course we’re on now.
This has, however, brought us inconsistent winds so hopefully the low starts to pick us up and bring some stability to us soon because you always have to work so much harder to trim and helm that much tighter in changeable winds, especially with the southern pack cruising along at the lovely speeds they have.
The crew have worked exceptionally hard and somehow still have the incredible get up and go to don the foulies, get on watch early, attack every evolution, trim like mad and helm with focus every single time they get up. On the part of myself and Bob, as well as the rest of the Skips and Skiplets, there’s always a lot of self-inflicted pressure to do right by the crew so their efforts don’t go in vain.
We just hope we can get it right for them so we place well in the racing sense but also, it’s incredibly important to remember that crossing the North Pacific is an achievement aside from racing. It’s something that most sailors dream of but will never achieve and it’s important for every single member of every boat to be proud of what they will have achieved when they arrive in Seattle. It’s an accomplishment to have battled the cold, the aches, the tiredness, the greatest of all the oceans and to have come out on top. The last time I did this race, my boat retired after drifting painfully past the Finish Line. However, I look back now and it doesn’t matter because after 37 arduous days, as a crew, together we’d crossed the Pacific.
I know the other Skippers and AQPs read these blogs so to them and their crews I’ll share this last stanza of a poem I wrote on Leg 2.
It may seem from day to day that she never will give breaks
To you or your fellow journey folks for their wet and tired sakes.
But all sailors know it never lasts and it’s this we know as true;
When the wind abates, the sun will wait behind the clouds for you.
Hooroo cobbers,
Cam, Beggsy and the hard-working HLB crew