Well, here it is. The first blog of the Subic Bay to Subic Bay, via a whole bunch of other places, race from the good ship Unicef. We left the bay, have sailed over the Manila Trench, and are heading up the South China Sea towards the Bashi Channel, which will take us back out into the Pacific Ocean, north over the Ryukyu trench, round the Nansei Islands and then back down, through what look like some pretty spicy conditions, past the obligatory windholes, all the way to the welcoming bar at the Subic Bay Yacht Club and its 24 hour service of San Miguel Beer.
The start yesterday afternoon was absolutely spectacular. 15-20 knots of breeze was blowing down the bay, and it was a downwind start. We got off the line really well and had our spinnaker hoisted seconds after we crossed. From our position at the front of the fleet - not a position we held for long, sadly - we had an incredible view of the other spinnakers stretched out behind us, lit by the afternoon sun, against the stark backdrop of volcanic hills, and down at the water's edge, tropical jungle.
Since then the crew have been working their fingers to the bone to keep the boat moving through the extraordinarily changeable conditions that make this part of the ocean such a magnet for people in search of extraordinarily changeable sailing conditions. Immediately we left the Bay, the whole fleet sailed directly into this invisible wall of windlessness. We all stopped, in an almost perfect line across the sea, like sheep standing warily two feet away from an electric fence. Since then it has been a veritable jamboree of windseeker, spinnaker and yankee hoists and drops, as we have sought to keep the boat moving as the wind has varied from 0.00000 knots to nearly 20, and from due south to due north and all points in between. Each watch changeover has involved the flamboyant retelling of the epic tale of the previous four hours, as each watch team has regaled the other with stories of almost non-stop activity. Even the hundreds of fishermen that dot our patch all through the night and pass within feet of the boat as they sit, impervious to our approach, shining their torches into the depths in search of their supper, were only a sideshow in the story.
The next 24 hours promise more of the same, before we hit the top of Luzon, where, if the forecast is to be believed, a big breeze awaits.
Here we go.
Ian and Mike