Good morning Black Betty fans.
As you will have seen the race has now finished, being called short due to the lack of wind. Also you will know that we have finished last. Despite our poor finish position the team is still upbeat, they really gave it their all on this race. The reason for our last place was the move we made east early on in this race. It's very easy to say that now, as the easiest weather routing to do is retrospective weather routing!
That was a poor call on my part, we never recovered, we never regained all the miles that we lost due to that poor tactical call, and subsequently finishing last has nothing to do with the crew, the responsibility for that sits squarely on my shoulders. The team has been highly supportive, I couldn't ask for more, but there is no point dressing it up, it's not their fault, it's mine.
This race has seen some of the most extreme conditions we have experienced on Leg 5, relatively heavy upwind, and flying some kites in big down wind conditions. This short course has thrown almost everything at us weather wise, no wind, loads of wind, strong current (both positive and negative), largish swell, completely flat seas, squalls, constant heavy rain to name but a few. The team has excelled themselves, pushing on with every sail change, helming in some challenging conditions and generally overcoming every obstacle that the last 10 days have thrown at us. I mentioned it a few days back, the difference in our ability as a team since leaving Airlie Beach back in January is night and day, the crew-on-crew coaching on this leg has been brilliant, everyone has developed and improved their skills, and the teamwork and communication has come on no end.
We are now motoring south, towards the cold beers, soft clean white sheets, steaks and showers of Subic Bay. As Leg 5 draws to a close it’s time to say goodbye to some, and see you in a bit to others, as our leggers change and we welcome new team members aboard. This leg has seen quite a few nicknames appear amongst the team, let me fill you in. The man with the most nicknames on board has to be Kiwi, aka Paul W/Paulie/Uncle Albert/Grandad. Rach aka the horse doctor, Ben is now known as BenGERMAN (well by me anyway), Jass has picked up a few, Jazzer, and PBJ (Pinball junior) as she did a little bit of bouncing around the boat like a pinball in the heavy weather, and the junior bit comes from the fact that Mel also did some pin-balling so she earned the title of PinBall. Lizzie, as you may remember from way back towards the start of this leg became Filing Cabinet when I discovered, spent several years as a Filing Cabinet sales person (I still can't believe this is a real job).
The man formerly known as Nigel now goes by 'The Nigster', and when on galley duty, Nigella. From our watch change games last week our American of leg Mike became Goat Walker (don't ask!) A few of the team are yet to have a boat nickname bestowed upon them, Kaz, Susie, Laurance, Kate, Sophie and somehow Gareth, but I'm sure their time will come. Well actually Gareth has several, but none that are suitable for a family friendly blog! In Subic Bay (The return) we say goodbye to Filing Cabinet, The Nigster, Kate and Goat walker, and we say see you later to Gareth, Mel and PBJ who are all returning for Leg 8. It's been great having these guys on board and we will be sorry to see them go.
Overall leg 5 has been brilliant. The team has achieved some great first for WTC Logistics. Our First ever race win, which was also our first ever podium, first scoring gate points, and (hopefully) first Ocean Sprint win. Granted we were only competing against one other boat in the Ocean Sprint, but a win is a win, and three points are three points! I think we will have accrued a total of 17 points for this leg across both races, evidently most of those were from the race from Airlie Beach to Subic. We could have achieved the same number of points with two mid fleet finishes, but the general feeling on board is that we will happily take the lows of being at the back of the fleet hand in hand with highs of being on the top spot of the podium rather than two mid pack results. We are resilient, and we are determined to keep going, to give every race our all. Where the next race will take us we are yet to know, but what we do know is RIGHT HERE.... RIGHT NOW..... WE ARE WTC.
Black Betty OUT!