Boat Diary

Part 3

24th November:

Today was an easy sailing day for the crew and we even had a few hours of nice sun shine. Unfortunately the wind dropped a bit in the afternoon to around 15 knots and we hoisted code 2 on a broad reach all day long. We then reached the exclusion zone and were close at 46 degree latitude where we sailed along the line.

What we had noticed is that the temperature drops significant and everyone looks like a Marshmallow Michelin. Surprisingly inside the boat, its not too cold yet and I really hope it stays like this. But sailing is not just pulling the ropes and trimming the sail; there are many other duties that need to be organised when you are with 21 other people in a confined space.

One duty I had today, and what it is actually called, was that of a “Mother”. The mother shift is all about feeding the sailors which is really a mission in itself especially when you have no clue about cooking. Luckily the mother shift is always with one person from each shift. In my case Guisse from New Zealand knew what to do and I had to follow her instructions only, voilà! Now you may ask yourself how to cook for 22 people at the same time. The answer is to have one big pot and go for easy dishes like carrot & lentil soup with garlic bread for lunch 🍲🥖, and vegetarian chilli with rice for dinner 🥘🍚 .

Luckily we are, most of the time, on a broad reach course so that the boot isn't healing too much.

Good news is that the water maker is running again and we can produce approximately 30 litres an hour. Due to the low water temperature, the efficiency drops significantly. Steve found out that one cable from the main control to the unit was broken. Normally this could be found out much quicker but our volt meter is also broken and without it, its very difficult to isolate the problem. Well done Mr. Steve!

25th November:

Another lovely day of champagne sailing but very very cold. While sailing offshore it's always the same, either it's too hot (not warm) or just freezing cold. Few days ago, as an example, the temperature down below deck was nice but once you put all your clothes on to get on deck, you always get a heat stroke. To prevent the worst, you need to get out ASAP and cool down. Lol! Once you sit idle, it doesn't matter what you wear, it's just gets cold. Then once you need to change the sails, it gets unbearably warm and you start sweating as if running a 10k on time.

The weather and wind conditions were very nice and we were flying our code 2 and making good progress compared to other boats. Suddenly we noticed that the spinnaker halyard broke and the head was holding onto our dynamo safety strop, only that we install on every halyard. Not good, as the safety strop could break any time due to the sheer load. Mr. Will, our very young and talented watch leader, volunteered to go up the 30 meters high mast and install the 2nd spinnaker halyard along with a new safety loop. Huge respect for him as this is not an easy task when the boat is going up, down, left and right. It took him approximately 20 minutes holding with one hand to the mast for his life and fixing everything at the spinnaker head with the other hand.

Little disappointing thing for me is that the night sails are, unfortunately, not as nice and beautiful as I have thought it would be because most of the time the clouds are covering the stars. Sometimes, only the moon comes out to spend us some light.

26th November:

Unbelievable but we had another sunny day of champagne sailing. A constant breeze of 15 -17 knots but unfortunately with a lower wind prediction. At 4 pm Mr. Jeronimo, our new Skipper for Qingdao, decided to peel the spinnaker from the current Code 2 to Code 1. The whole evolution went very well without any dramas and I fixed my go pro camera at the side rail to record everything. I hope I got a good recording.🤞

The forecast for tomorrow looks a bit different as a Low is developing in the West and moving towards us. The colour is red and every sailor knows what it means and what lays ahead us. So stay tuned!