Hello. When these Skipper or AQP blogs get published into the big wide world they also get sent to our nav computers. We always enjoy reading them and gives us an insight into other boats and see how others are doing, especially when you’ve been on your lonesome for many weeks. I’d like to borrow a coined comment made by Dare To Lead’s AQP Charlie who mentioned a “speed to stress ratio.” I thought it was a very good way to describe the feelings of any First Mate or Skipper.
A large amount of the time the stress levels can be quite high, either with very fast spicy sailing or very slow frustrating sailing. But like Charlie mentioned, the past few days have been great, fantastic speeds in (mostly) the right direction equalling very low stress. So low that even Ella managed to complete her Sudoku book!
A couple of days ago when we floated around in our personal windhole, Izzy, whilst basking in the sun, sat on a bean bag, with a cup of tea, lazily holding the windseeker sheet, declared she was going to sue Clipper Race for misinterpretation of the “Mighty” Pacific. Well, turns out the Pacific was listening. This afternoon, as she was helmed with me as her check, we had gusts of 45kts of wind, and we flung down huge waves constantly hitting speeds of 18/19knots, all in the rain and hail. After an adrenaline filled hour, where neither of us could feel our hands, toes or faces, we retreated to the galley for a cup of tea. Izzy then decided she would revoke her lawyers and decided that was indeed more of what she had in mind.
In other news, as I type this Vasi is popping the finishing touches on our Code 3, which shortly will be packed and ready to go once more. Vasi has worked tirelessly to finish the repair before we found conditions when we really needed it, and she has done just that. We now are back to a full fridge of sails for the last part of our journey, particularly important for the upcoming Ocean Sprint. Vasi is a credit to all crew members demonstrating that at first when it seems impossible, just taking one organised step at a time, even in the cold, wet and constantly moving environment of the boat, things are in fact possible. Showing what amazing things you can achieve with a bit of determination and patience.
We are now gybing our way along the Northern Limit which will complete part 3 and our focus will then move onto part 4, the Ocean Sprint.
All the best Hannah, Ella and the Washington, DC Crew.