time i wrote a blog so the yankee 1 came back out and we've been
continuing with beautiful blue sky days and no more that 11-12 knots of
wind. We even had a wind angle that meant we flew our medium weight
spinnaker for about 24hours only dropping it in the middle of last
night!! I thought i'd seen my last of the spinnaker!
Every day we talk and prepare ourselves for the onslaught of wind and
waves we are expecting once we get near the gate at the south of taiwan.
It's getting to the point where a lot of us just want to get there and
do it, enough talk!! Apparently althought the wind and sea will be big
it won't start getting really cold until we pass taiwan and head up into
the east china and yellow sea. We've packed away everything that we can
think of that can possibly go flying - galley condiments, knives and
books etc We also finally bit the bullet and sicaflexed ?sp? our
sleeping quaters hatch closed as it is warped and lets too much water
in. Now that the spinnaker is down the poles have been well and truely
lashed to the deck and the jockey pole stowed away in the lazarette.
We've rigged up extra jack stays around the deck to clip our safety
lines onto while we move around up top and we have rope rails strung up
everywhere down below so it looks a bit like a ropes course and has been
providing a bit of a big kids play ground while the conditions are light
enough not to need them in a serious way. We've rearranged all our
sails so we have our storm sails close at hand and positioned in the
cabin so we are walking on them rather than the floor that gets very
slippery when wet and on an angle! Oh and people have re-started their
sea sickness meds. So we're as prepared as we can be and are now just
waiting for the wind gods to flick the on switch!!
We've always had our plan, first to follow the aussies tack for tack as
they are our main competitors at the moment being 1-2 points over all
infront of us on the leader board. Our patience eventually paid off and
our belief that we could outsail them and once we passed them there was
no looking back. Our passage plan is constantly under review with each
new weather file we recieve and change in conditions and there is always
huge discussion. I've learnt loads as being a watch leader has meant
i've been part of the discussions and decision making. I'm now much
more familar with 'Seapro'our computerised chart and weather plotter!
I've also been using the radar and AIS to locate, track and avoid or
outsail other ships, fishing boats or competitors. I've even answered
one of our VHF calls the other night, although it was only from the
aussies wanting to check their barometer reading with ours as theirs had
misread a change of 6+ hPa over a few hours. I was able to check our
log and barometer and reassure them all was ok. It has been awesome and
the mood has been great since seeing all our hours of deliberation over
our course and racing hard paying off as we worked our way up the fleet
to where we are more used to being, NUMBER 1!! However fter getting
ourselves there we have now had an unfavourable wind shift and have also
had to do the inevitable and tack to come further east so we can set
ourselves up for the predicted change in wind direction and force to
head through the gate. It means we are likely to drop at least a few
positions by the next update as we're having to settle for a pretty ugly
course over ground/velocity made good and a fairly average speed
too! All a bit frustrating just as we made it to the top!
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