Week 6, Leg 1, Race 2 – First Over the Line a Journey to Remember

Saltwater Scars

Hopefully, our last week on the high seas as the race is starting to take its toll on me.  My hands are ruined, covered in small cuts, got a really sore one, just under my thumb on my left hand, being constantly wet in salt water, it won’t heal and with every evolution (change of sail plan) it opens again and stings. I am not sure if it’s the lack of salts in the water, (we make our own water on the boat, another blog maybe) but every time my hands are in contact with either salt or fresh water, they instantly turn into prunes, like I’ve been sitting in a bath for 4 hours, it would be nice to sit in a hot bath for 4 hours, that’s for sure.  The endurance of this race, is basically staying fit, well and dry!

Keeping dry is near impossible, I had a good wash yesterday, put on a clean set of clothes, was on deck for an hour or so, went to drop a couple of layers and skipper wants an immediate sail change, don’t have time to put my wet weather gear on, go up on the foredeck and got blasted by a massive wave, everything soaked again. Sitting in salty wet clothes has given me nappy rash, and it’s a bugger, really uncomfortable and there’s nowhere comfortable to sit, it’s starting to affect my sleep, welcome to sailing.

The Spinnaker Incident (Again)

We broke our Code 3 spinnaker earlier today, one of the strops on the clew, randomly snapped, not sure how, as I’d just come off watch, all hell lets loose, all available hands on deck, trying to letterbox drop the kite under some sort of control and of course we damaged the bloody thing, that’s all our kites damaged now. Luckily, it looks like is only a small part of the luff near the clew. Kerry and Sarah, straight on it and repaired, ready for the next evolution. We’re now 80 odd miles up on GOSH, but as we drop under 1,000 to the finish, it’s all to play for.

Sailing through the oil fields off Brazil last night.  Like little island cities, and they’re everywhere. We’ve been gybing around them all night in fairly heavy seas and a brisk wind, a real workout on the helm. The helm is probably the most comfortable place to be with a sore ass, as you’re standing!

As the wind begins to drop, GOSH have closed the gap, it looks like around 60 miles, which is good enough, if it stays like that. It’s becoming a bit of a drag race to the finish, with both boats being so similar, it’s the little things that’s going to make the difference.

The winds have been a bit fluky and been difficult to maintain a constant sail plan, we’ve had the Yankee 2 up, then the Yankee 1 up, then the Spinnaker code 1 up, it’s exhausting and with large rolling seas, lots of wash over the bow, which adds to the time to take up and put down the sails. We’ve also discovered a lot of tiny holes/rips in our Yankee 2, luckily discovered early. We’re not 100% sure how it’s happened, but looks like Hank damage, the pulls on the hanks are slightly knurled, and feel rough to touch and whilst sailing through the oil fields with big swells, the Yankee was collapsing as we raced down the waves, and we think, this has caused it. The guys, immediately taped the tears up, but after another 24 hours, the tape has come off, so we need to tape the tears again and hand stitch the tape. The Yankee 2 is our go to sail, and we need to look after it. We probably should have over sheeted more, but all these things are learnings that we can take forward in the race. We’ve also lost one of our heavy spinnaker sheets, we think that when the strop broke on our code 3 spinnaker, in all the confusion the stropped end it had obviously fallen into the water when it broke and had pulled itself off the boat. We do carry other sheets on board, but another lesson learned.

Crocs and Cable Ties

Many of us, use “Crocs” as our go to deck shoe, it’s amazing how many different models we have within the crew and of all the shoes and boots I’ve tried, they have had the best grip. I tend to wear them without socks, but occasionally, I’ve worn “Sealskin” dry socks, which work well.  Now that we’re back into colder climates, I’ve reverted to my Musto boots, but I’ve also been a salt rash on the top of my foot which was getting sore.  I use medical Crocs as they don’t have holes in, but I’ve had them a while and the button holding on the strap has been having a charmed life. It has popped off half a dozen times, it’s the size of a 5 pence piece, yet it’s been found on the deck every time. Others have not been so lucky! One of Charlie’s buttons has been lost in the cause, so a cable tie is now holding his strap on. Petra, has lost one of hers overboard and yesterday, whilst doing a racing headsail change, we had to hold proceedings as Ollie got his Croc, caught up in the side netting on the bow. It has become a bit of a joke within the crew, with various “Croc” charms going missing. Clare has lost a “whale”, given to her by a nephew, Kerry has lost a “5” as part of his LBS 25.

It’s been a busy shift today, starting with the Yankee 1, which had been strapped on the high side, had dropped to the low side, and the sail & sail bag full of water, the 2nd time in as many days, where sails have not been secured properly on deck and have had to be revisited, we need to be so much better at these small things. Massive effort from the team pulling it back on the high side and securing it, soaked again. Sure enough, Yankee 1 down below, then Code 1 up and Yankee 2 down, flaked and ready for repair. Then spent my long watch, emery clothing the hanks that ripped the Yankee 2, I mean these things were sharp, and I can’t believe that a sailmaker would have supplied the hanks like this, will need further discussion when we get to Punta. Then helped Kerry sew the new patches over the tears. The wind isn’t the best again, struggling to get the boat moving and the statuesque with GOSH continues, we’re still ahead by approx 60 nautical miles, and as we are both following the same wind, we get good wind, they get poor wind and then it reverses.

Neck and Neck with GOSH

Back on watch today, and we’ve had a good night putting an extra 2 miles between GOSH and ourselves, even though we’ve had a spell of low winds, which we expect to strengthen and back, the code 1 is still up and sea state moderate, lots of little jobs been done on board. Our main out hall has been damaged by a bolt that was really too long, we’ve just removed the bolt for the moment and will replace properly when we get to Punta. One of the screws on the forward head door has come out (well it’s not a door so much, more of a heavy weight zipped curtain) so that’s re-drilled and screwed, then there seems the constant job of putting the tools back. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to put the tools back that others have taken out. In fact, I’ve stopped putting them back until today, Gavin has mentioned it, I doubt if it will make much difference, but we will see.

We’ve gone into the night watch with a full main sail and code 1 with 20 knots of wind. Fingers crossed all goes to plan, and we make some more gains.

Very frustrating day, got up for watch and as expected our code 3 spinnaker was flying (since we knackered our code 2, we’ve been using our code 3 at night and our code 1 during the day) but we couldn’t take our code 3 down as the rope lining had split on the Starboard spinnaker halyard. We’ve also had an issue with our Port spinnaker halyard and as such we were unable to drop our code 3!  Bugger. Zoe, was then sent up the mast, not an easy thing in a marina, but in the South Atlantic a different challenge altogether. We changed out both halyards, hoisted out stay sail (to de-power the code 3), dropped the spinnaker. Attached the code 1 spinnaker and made way. But the time we’ve lost will have really hurt our time advantage over GOSH. The winds have now dropped giving GOSH another opportunity to catch up, we can only hope for some strong winds, to help get us over the line. It will be extremely difficult for GOSH to beat us over the line, but with our time penalty, they have it all to play for. But that’s ocean racing.

Visited by three different pods of dolphins during the day, it’s as if they have their own WhatsApp messaging system, we could see the pods racing towards us, playing around the boat for 30 minutes or so, then disappear. We’ve also had a smaller pod around the boat this evening.

On the last 24 hours of the race, and it’s still going to be a close run thing. We’ve left our code 1 up tonight, last chance to get some distance from GOSH, but the wind still isn’t that strong, so we won’t really know what’s up until we get to Punta.

Yet again the wind gods are not on our side, slight winds all night and GOSH have closed in, we’ve gybed to cover off GOSH and with about 3 hours to the finish line we should have enough distance ahead of GOSH, approximately 9.5 nautical miles, to secure 1st over the finish line, which is a moral victory and one that we and our supporters on the dock will appreciate.  But there can still be a twist to these things, we’ve just got to raise the Yankee 1, get a clean kite drop and that will hopefully do it, but there is a bit of nervous tension on the boat as it’s still too close to call.  I’ve decided not to go to bed and be woken up, to drop the kite, to be fair, I probably wouldn’t sleep anyway.

As we head towards the last mark into Punta, the last big rock into Punta, we sail past the big Lighthouse on Sea Lion Island (apparently there are thousands of sea lions living on the island).

As we turn the corner, all hands on deck, and we set about dropping the kite, our best one yet, to everybody’s relief. We round up and head for the finishing line, just a mile or so away, we can see lots of boats on the water, the Punta lifeboat is out to greet us, we know we’ve got line honours and whilst a little deflated that GOSH, unless something drastic happens, will finish 1st due to our harsh time penalty.

Line Honours and a South American Welcome

The finish line runs perpendicular to the marina breakwater and is full of supporters, and we can hear them cheer as we come in hot to the line. The horns go off and we’ve done it. We’ve finished our 1st leg, two races, our 1st ocean crossing, our first equator crossing, our 1st Doldrums and our 1st podium and six weeks at sea. There are tears on board from a few, it’s difficult to explain how emotional this race can be.

After crossing the line, we immediately drop our sails and sweep back along the marina breakwater and soak up the atmosphere of family, friends and large numbers of locals from Punta. What a satisfying feeling, the majority of the folk watching from the shore only know we’ve crossed the line 1st after some 6,000 miles.

We head out into the bay to tidy up the boat, put up our racing banners. And get ready to enter the marina, but before we head in, we stay out to welcome GOSH into 2nd over the line and gave them three cheers before we head into the marina.

What a reception, a few thousand people were on the marina to welcome the 1st boat in. We had local dignitaries, Punta yacht club members, and Clipper staff handing out various bits of stash and eventually a few cold beers. It just felt so right. The Punta yacht club then opened their club with a free bar and food for a couple of hours. After 6 weeks at sea, fresh ham sandwich’s and beer just went up another notch. A great ending to a great race with so many amazing achievements, time to relax for a few days and enjoy our achievements.