Leg 1: Week 4, September 21st - 27th, 2015
Day 22: Monday, September 21, 2015
Mother watch again today for me. At least this should be my last one before we get to Rio...hurray! This is by far the hardest job on the boat. I'm hoping during the other legs it won't be as miserable with cooler temperatures down below. But it is really unbearable cooking in front of a hot stove in foulies and then juggling it all at 30-45 degree angle!
Day 23: Tuesday, September 22, 2015
Tack, tack, tack! Upwind we make our way to Rio trying to find the best wind angle.
We are slowly approaching the equator! I knew there was a ceremony involved but what I didn't know is that everyone is put on trial in front of Neptune and tried for their crimes. The accused is always found guilty and punished for their crimes in the form of food or fish guts thrown all over them and occasionally tributes are made in the form hair cutting, etc. Another token you get for crossing the equator in a boat is that you join the exclusive club of being a shellback. And therefore, you are eligible to get a turtle tattoo! At the moment, I am still gunho about this, but when push comes to shove, not sure I'll actually go through with it. I've decided I should pick out the turtle I want now and that way if we happen to go through with it after a late night of drinking, at least I will have had a say in which one I got...seems practical, right?
I am very excited to find out what crime I've committed and everyone else on board. We were hoping to get there this afternoon but it is looking like it will be later in the wee hours of the morning, so hopefully tomorrow I will have something to report back on!
Day 24: Wednesday, September 23, 2015 - EQUATOR CROSSING!!!!
Today we made it past the equator! It was technically around 10:49 pm the previous night. It was during my watch and we had a countdown going, the anticipation was high! We woke up the other watch a few minutes before so they could come up and celebrate with us. I set up shop next to the compass and had Leo snap a shot of me almost right on the zero mark, ended up being at .001, so pretty good. Although he was more focused on the compass and I was chopped out slightly. After the celebration, I drew turtles on everyone with permanent markers signifying we were now part of the Shellback exclusive club!
Since we passed in the evening, we decided to save the real celebrations until the next day when it was light out. During our watch changeover, we had a visit from Neptune himself! Skipper appropriately donned the Neptune costume wearing a white garb with a long beard, a crown and carrying his boat hook. He called us each forward to try us for our crimes. I was charged with being too gullible and believing in the 3-legged haggis and for being overly concerned about being in constant collision courses with volcanos and boats! We were each doused in a mixture of baked beans, gherkin juice, coffee grounds, TVP minced vegetable sloth, quinoa, and salt water as punishment for our crimes.
The punishment left quite a mess up on deck, so it was all hands in cleaning the deck again. The only way to get this gooey mixture completely gone was to get out the fire hose. After finally getting it unravelled (this thing would not be handy in a real emergency situation!), we sprayed down the deck and then sprayed down all the crew members. All and all was a great experience and that Shellback tattoo is looking more and more appealing...especially since my sharpie tattoo only lasted two days. I think salt water is the magical solution to getting permanent marker off the skin.
Day 25: Thursday, September 24, 2015
We are officially taking part in the ocean sprint as of last night. Weather was forecasted to give us good winds and although it takes us slightly off course from Rio, we thought it would be worth a shot! So far, we've had strong winds and are making excellent time! Our real worry is Telemed behind us which could use a spinnaker to beat our time. We will just have to keep smashing it and hope that our time is good enough!
Today we discovered we had cheerios in our cereal selection! And not just the original but honey nut flavored ones! I never eat cheerios, but what a pleasant surprise they were. We chowed down 2-3 bowls each for our afternoon snack. Never had cheerios tasted so good!
Speaking of never eating certain foods, I have now become a chocolate addict! Our watch leader, John, spoils us and brings us a bar of Cadburys chocolate for every night watch. I anxiously await the chocolate and now I want chocolate after every meal. Hopefully these cravings go away when I am back on dry land eating my usual food...we shall see!
Day 26: Friday, September 25, 2015
We smashed it in the ocean race! Beating the contender by around 55 minutes or so we have estimated. The results will not come out until later so we can only go off the schedule reports we receive. We are in high spirits now but Telemed can still knock our time out of the water since they are right on our heels and sailing with the same wind we had. We can only hope the wind dies shortly after it passes us!
We now only have about 4-5 days to Rio! I can't believe this leg is almost over. It has gone by so quickly and I'm sure the next couple of days will pass even quicker. We have a countdown until the days we can have a nice cold beer again! I am not much of a drinker but a nice cold beer just sounds absolutely amazing!
We will have to be on our A game the next couple of days so that Telemed doesn't slip pass us. We still have a broken bow sprit and it is now barely hanging on after all the upwind sailing. So we'll have to make up as much time while we can sail upwind because the other boats will pounce all over us once we start going downwind into Rio. Hopefully, we have gained enough mileage between the other boats these past couple of days to secure our 7th place position!
Day 27: Saturday, September 26, 2015
The crew has now learned the effects espresso has on me. Our boat is amazingly stocked with a nepresso maker so when the generator is on, we can actually have some decent coffee! I happened to have an espresso this morning before my shift. It was a good one...I was in crazy caffeinated spirits in no time! Once on the helm, I was told I could put my music on and that was the downfall of any good helming I was capable of. I was dancing and enjoying myself and the boat was steering 30-40 degrees off course? I was quickly reminded to focus and keep my course. I am no longer allowed to have espresso and music on while I helm...hehe
Telemed is quickly gaining on us and there is nothing we can do with only our white sails. We have finally decided we've had enough of this and are going to attempt to rig an alternate tack line off the mooring cleat on the bow to try and hoist Helena (code 1 spinnaker). After much careful thought and discussion, Huw has managed to put something together and we gave it a go. It worked! Helena was successfully hoisted! However, with all the strain on the mooring cleat, we cannot use Helena as she is intended to be used with trimming. We can only go off the helm and keep her afloat. We are hoping to gain at least a knot with this, but it is hard to tell if this is helping at all. It does lift the spirits of the crew that we are trying to go faster and who else can say they hoisted a spinnaker with a broken bow sprit! Oh yeah...rockstars! #nobowsprit
Day 28: Sunday, September 27, 2015
Flying fish are curious things. They look quite nifty in the water flying vast distances with their little fish bodies and wings. Usually they are in large swarms flying in and out of the water. However, at night, it is a different story...they become rapturous flying objects, taking out any unsuspecting victim in their way! On numerous accounts, people have been caught off guard and smacked by these vile creatures. Once on deck, they flip flop all over the place and reek of fishy smelling ickiness! They have become less prevalent now but in the first and second weeks, we would find little fish bodies all over once daylight broke. After the fish came the flying squid! These bad boys don't actually fly, they just land up on deck with the waves that crash over and then ink all over our deck! Amancio was considering making some squid ink pasta with these, but don't think these are the same kind they use in restaurants...
We've now managed to keep Helena up for over 24 hours, which we didn't expect. The plan was to keep this up until the wind direction shifted; however, the wind picked up in the middle of the night and after a minor broach (the boom slightly tipping into the water), it was time to take Helena down. During the process, the tack line went flying, slipping through the hands our of crew. Karri was the last one holding on. The force of the pull, ripped through her hands and tossed her backward, knocking her head on the sail in the process. She went downstairs quickly but she still continued to try and help get the kite down. I insisted she sit down. She was very persistent at first but when she realized the pain she was in, she finally went to get our medic on board. She ended up with numerous blisters on her hands and will probably get a good bruise on her head. We are hoping her hand will heal quickly and the pain subsides.
Day 29: Monday, September 28, 2015
I've been on the lookout for whales now for weeks. All the sea creatures have vanished minus the flying fish. We haven't even seen dolphins recently! Everyday while I'm on watch, I patiently look out at the horizon in search of whales and find nothing. However, today as I was at the helm, some appeared directly in front of us! Directly, as in I was about to crash into the whales, in front of us! I immediately yelled for Tino to take over the helm so I could gaze at the whales. Thank goodness he took over because I surely would have steered us directly into the whales had I still been behind the wheel! The whales were at our bow and then passed us on our port side. There were three of them, two with a little baby one! They were so close we could have touched them with our boat hook had we tried! Although this was very exciting, I'm still waiting to get a glimpse of a whale jumping out of the water or a tail splashing about! Within minutes of the whale sighting, dolphins came up! And there were little baby ones too! Either that or the dolphins in the Southern Hemisphere are much smaller. The lesson I learned from this experience is that I should clearly helm more as the wildlife flock to me when I'm on the helm!
Day 30: Tuesday, September 29, 2015
The days continue to tick by and we are very, very slowly itching our way to Rio. Every day during our story time happy hour (when the watch switches at dinner time), we are told another day is added until we make it to Rio. Will we ever make it at this point! We are nearing a shutdown as we come inshore meaning there will be no wind. This could stop us from progressing for 1-2 days! We are so close to the finish line, we can smell the land and we are stuck out at sea with no wind! The taste of sweet beer is palpable and yet so far away...
Day 31: Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Another day passes and we are still out at sea. There are a lot more boats and birds now, so that must be a good sign that we are closer! Only problem is there is no wind! I've just been informed we have about 75 miles to go, so we are estimating we will make it to the finish line between midnight and midday tomorrow! Woowho! Unfortunately, since it has taken us so long, it will be straight into full days of maintenance and preparations for Leg 2 before we get any downtime and relaxation. Hopefully we will get at least a half day to see the sights in Rio??? I'm also on mother duty again tomorrow, so really hoping we make it to Rio sooner rather than later! On the plis side, we saw a shit ton of whales today and a sea turtle!!!
Day 32: Thursday, October 1, 2015
Well since we got stuck in the shutdown for so darn long, they decided to call the race and we were allowed to start motoring at midnight. I have mixed feelings about this. On the upside, we are finally making it to Rio! However, on the downside we were so close to finishing so not as fun motoring across instead of sailing. The crew was very excited to have a set date of getting in instead of getting more days tacked on.
We finally made it into Rio this morning around 8 am with an applause from the other boats and a cooler of beer waiting for us! It was great to finally be on dry land and see the outline of Rio waiting to be explored! I can't wait to see the sites in Rio but I know we have a lot of work ahead of us and not much time left so we will have to make the most of it!
Leg 2, Rio to Cape Town departs next Wednesday, October 7th!
more pics...
This is how we live below deck during upwind sailing...here Huw is mastering the art of pouring cereal.
No comments:
Post a Comment