Friends and family have said that my last blog was a bit grumpy and I suppose I was, but only due to frustration and I don’t know how I’m going to feel or what’s going to happen on a week-to-week basis. It’s how I feel in the moment and at the time. So, it is what it is, warts and all.
I awake after another very long mother watch to a bloody squall. 1st time I’ve had my Musto Salopettes on in this race, but I’m getting fed up with wet gear and not being able to get it dry. Sure enough, in comes the rain, not as hard as last time, just constant and everything is soaked, but at least it’s fresh water. Eventually the rain drys up and the sun pops its head out and after an hour or so, Gavin calls for the code 2 to be brought up on deck. At first, because Tony and Gavin where joking and laughing, I thought they’d found a way to wind me up! But no, take off our Yankee 3, which was still on deck, hanked on under our Yankee one, flake it and put it away then use the starboard Yankee Halyard to pull up the code 2 spinnaker on deck (it’s a bloody heavy and awkward sail) and getting it ready to fly. All done, then a call to arms by the smoking gang, at the back of the boat. We see Warrant on our starboard quarter and it doesn’t look like they’re flying a kite.
The Code 2 is up and flying well, our speed is moving back up towards 20 knots, a far cry from trying to magic up 5 knots only a few hours ago. Fantastic, we’re back to down wind sailing. However, it’s always a bit risky with all these squalls about and sure enough we’ve had 2 or 3 drops in a watch, tiring, but getting our speed up and we’ve now passed Warrant, into 2nd place, now chasing down DC who are in a strong position, I can feel a few tactical decisions being made before we hit the sprint scoring gate.
Late watch, just got busy, got our Code 2 Spinnaker up at 4am this morning to pull further away from Warrant and chase down DC, boat speed jumped from 8 knots to 16 knots. Will Warrant respond? We’ve pulled out just over 12 miles on them before the spinnaker hoist. A squall comes through after only 4 hours of flying the kite, so our watch is woken and we pull the kite back down again. Still, we got 4 hours of use and we are racing.
Plan B is now in force, with all the squally weather about, the thought process is to fly our code 3 full time and the staysail when possible. The Code 3 is our smallest and strongest spinnaker but can take much stronger winds and whilst we might be slower when we could be flying the Code 2 or Code 1, we should be able to fly the code 3 for longer and therefore giving us more consistent results than the other boats. The tortoise and the hare so to speak.
As per norm, our watch has raised the kite, I just hope that now we’re off watch, that we don’t get woken up again to drop it. We’ve flown the spinnakers 5 times so far and our watch has put them all up normally at the end of the watch and passed it on to the other watch to enjoy the fun and we then get woken in our off watch to drop the bloody thing. I’ve not had a chance to helm once with the kite up on this race, fingers crossed all goes well, it stays up for our watch to enjoy it a little.
All positive “ish”. Woken early as the wind has dropped. The plan is to drop the Code 3 and hoist the Code 1. A right ball ache, but if needs must, but we can have breakfast first, very kind of Gavin! We get our breakfast and up on deck to change watch. As Tony is on Mother duty, I’m the watch leader! After 20 mins or so, the wind picks up and we’ve now decided to stick with the Code 3 Spinnaker for the time being, so the off watch is stood down and off to bed they go. It’s still dark and out of a deck watch of 5, only 2 are comfortable sailing at night with full cloud cover, no horizon, an unstable wind and a spinnaker to fly which none of our watch has flown on this leg! go figure! So, I’m thinking that this morning is a training day. It looks like the long run into Subic Bay will, at long last, be down wind sailing, with possible heavy seas, so now’s the time to train! The watch goes well without any major incident. Petra, who was on sail repair duty has had a go helming with the kite up. It’s been a really positive watch and to put icing on the cake, we have put distance on Warrant and cut DC’s lead down to only 36 miles. You can feel the race starting to build. Another good watch with a couple of “Kitemare” scares, good speeds, good mileage and all in the right direction. We hear that Warrant has had a Spinnaker halyard fail, dropping their kite in the water and probably knocking them back by about 3 hours and DC have hit a wind hole, changed direction and are trying to head North. But it’s so easy to go from hero to zero when ocean racing, especially during the night watch. Let’s hope the next schedule brings good news.
Trench Parties by Night, Spinnaker Records by Day.
We’ve got a slightly younger crew on this leg, present company excluded, led by Lucy and Zoe who are driving our onboard social calendar and with our resident OBR, James, available 24/7 to capture life on board, what could possibly go wrong. As we didn’t really celebrate new year due to our “kitemare” off Tasmania, our “fun” committee has come up with an idea for a party of sorts. We pass over the Marianna Trench on route, the deepest piece of water on the planet, another 1st so to speak and so we’re going to have a “trench” party. So, the off watch gets woken up again to join in with the party as we cross over the trench. All glammed up with light sticks we hit the galley which is lit up like a 1980’s Disco bar and then up on deck for some house music, a few games and shake out a few moves. There’s still life in the old dog yet! A great effort by all, I retired to bed after a while, to catch up on some much-needed sleep. It was a great bit of fun and really lifted the boats moral.
The Schedule is in and Plan B appears to be working. Team LBS are back into a healthy 1 st position with DC some 30 odd miles behind and Warrant nearly 50 miles behind. We’ve made ground on every other boat in the fleet and the quickest. What’s not to like with the crew grafting hard. Putting the extra hours in, getting out of bed to help with sail changes etc. But there’s still a long way to go. We just need to keep doing what we’re been doing and fingers crossed nothing breaks.
The Spinnaker training is going well, with everyone on our watch getting hands on and being able to handle a kite collapse without support. Handovers are getting better and the confidence is growing which is good to see. The wind has backed a little bit making it hard to hold our course with the kite. For those in the know, the apparent wind angle has been dropping as low as 75 degrees and even with over sheeting the kite, we’re getting a few more collapses than we’d like. Too many and we’ll damage our code 3 and with no working sewing machine on board, we need to be extremely careful. A large squall has appeared over our starboard quarter and as it’s a big one, Gavin jumps on the helm and the rest of the crew are on standby for an emergency kite drop, should we be hit by its full force. After an hour, we’ve managed to skirt around it and managed to miss the worst of it without having to drop the code 3, however the squall has brought a windshift making the helming conditions difficult. So Gavin has called for “restricted” helming. In other words the guys with less experience are to sit this one out. So that leaves Tony, Ryan and I to see out the watch. The wind angle is difficult and the wind has increased. But the potential for surfing has significantly increased along with, at last, a bit of speed. There is nothing better than holding the steering wheel of a 30-tonne ocean racing yacht with your spinnaker up, surfing down waves in 20 plus knots of wind. As we get to grips with the tighter wind angle, just taking the code 3 to the verge of collapse and bearing away, the boat speeds are starting to increase. This is a far cry from where we were, only 48 hours ago, trying to keep the boat moving in less than 4 knots of wind. We are shifting, averaging 14 knots. Then Ryan catches a wave, you can feel the boat accelerating, the noise lifts, water starts to spray over the bow and into the cockpit. We’re fast and the speed is climbing, topping out at 18.7 knots, certainly a record for this leg by a long way. Ryan is very happy with his work, cheering loudly as he’s reading out the top speed as Gavin comments from the nav station “you’ve matched my highest speed!” (He always says that). It’s now my turn back on the helm, this is what I signed up for and what I enjoy the most, the need for speed. The boat is humming along, but whilst I’m getting some good speed, I’ve not caught a decent wave and try as I might 18 knots is my best shot. Tony is coming back to get ready for his stint, when I catch a decent wave with the kite already full, you get that feeling, you know you’re going to be fast. But just how fast? LBS, twitches into life, we’re square on the wave, we’ve got momentum as we accelerate down the wave. It’s a perfect storm and the speed starts to increase, past 18 knots, move through 19 knots just get into 20 knots as we slow down. A record 20.2 knots on all sails, this leg and my record with a spinnaker on all legs. Ryan was mortified, “you bugger” he remarked. There will be plenty of opportunities for Ryan to top that speed in this race. It all made for a great watch. I get up for my last night watch of the day to find the Code 3 is down. The wind speed was getting too high and along with the poor wind angle, Gavin decided to drop it early. To be fair, our code 3 gets through a lot of work and so it’s worthwhile, especially in these conditions, to give it a rest and make any repairs on it or the rigging before we go again. As it transpires the kite needs some running repairs anyway. We get up on deck and with the help from the other watch we hoist the Yankee 1 and then drop our stay sail. We’re still hitting speeds of 14 to 15 knots but it will be very interesting to see who closes on us overnight.
With the schedule in, it looks like the fleet have been working hard to catch us with LBS still out in front, Warrant have moved up into 2nd place with DC dropping into 3rd then Punta and GOSH. Then a big gap to the rest of the field. We’ve just got to keep on pushing. Petra has finished the running repairs on the Code 3, we’ve repaired the chaffing issues on the spinnaker sheets and rerun them, reset the tack line and repaired some of the spinnaker halyard pulleys and making a terrible racket. So, the boat is all ready to fly the kite when the wind angle suits. As I’m sure the rest of the fleet will be pushing hard to catch us and we know it only takes one breakage to lose your lead, but we can’t take our foot off the gas now, I’m sure we’ll have a code up on our next watch. So down to lunch and six hours Kip.
Up for our dinner and as suspected, it’s up, the Code 2 spinnaker. But we’re navigating through some more squalls and get soaked again in the process. I’ve given up trying to keep dry, rather just treat the sores I keep getting. The squalls clear and we’re off and running with the code 2. All the guys are getting turns on the helm and getting confident in their abilities. As darkness falls, we’re asked to point a little higher, putting the helm under a bit more pressure. But we’re making good speed running at an average of 13 knots. It’s on the cusp of taking the code down and going to white sails, but we’ll be entering the sprint race in less than an hour and the fleet are chasing us down. Gavin asks the question and we all answer with leave the Code 2 up, and if it needs to come down during the other watch, wake us up to assist. I think Gavin was fishing for the correct answer he received from the crew. So, fingers crossed the code 2 will still be up for next watch.
Avoiding Helm Disasters and Galley Disasters (Just About)
The Code 2 is still up, but the wind has veered and dropped slightly. It’s a really dark night again, full cloud cover and a following sea, difficult conditions with the wind moving as much as 45 degrees in an instant. Tony is doing a great job on the helm and it’s my turn. I step into the helm cage and we have a disaster of a helm change, my fault by being a bit blasé. The wind backs as I take the helm, a lack of concentration and the boat has lurched to port, the wind angle has gone past 180 degrees, I’m in danger of broaching the boat and the kite has collapsed behind the main. Bugger! I’ve followed the collapse trying to put wind into the sail, but I’ve gone too far. I’m now trying to come back up, but I’m far too slow and the kite backs up through the anti wrap nett and wraps around the inner fore stay. Not me please, I’m swearing at myself out loud. I don’t want to be that person to have a wrap that damages our chances of a podium and I’m now fighting to save the kite. I pull hard up to Starboard, trying to get some wind in the front of the spinnaker and eventually I can feel the spinnaker filling again, slowly pulling itself out of the wrap, I’m still not out of danger and I bear away to stop the kite from flogging and fill the kite. I’m still fighting the wind and I go too far again, and the kite wraps again. Everyone is shouting different things at me. “Come up!”, “ Bear away!”. Gavin has appeared at the hatch like Mr Ben, just to add more pressure. I’ve calmed myself down and am more in control of the boat and go through the same process and I’ve unwrapped it again. But I’ve taken my time coming back down and thank God, the kite fills and we start making headway. That was so lucky, but I’m on edge for the next 25 mins, inwardly shouting at myself for such a stupid mistake. It’s shaken me a bit and brought me down to earth with a bump. Tony pats me on the back, that’s all thats needed and we start racing again. An hour later, I’m back on the bike, so to speak. This time however, I take my time with the hand-over and we’re back to racing in straight lines.
It’s been interesting learning to helm an ocean racing yacht, during my clipper training, the Fastnet race and over the last 5 months on LBS and over some 25,000 odd nautical miles on Ocean racing yachts. Every day is a learning day for me. But nothing is really formal, just helming and repeating, learning from different skippers through our training modules, Nigel, my skipper on the Fastnet, Gavin, my skipper on LBS, 1st mates on LBS (we’ve had a few) and fellow crew members. I’m now privileged to help coach some of the new crew, which is a great honour. I don’t profess to be the best helm, far from it, some of the guys I’m coaching are already better than me but just lack confidence. If they’ve got the skill set then I’d want them to be better than me. My coaching style is all about encouragement, everybody is different in how they helm, in fact I’ve not come across a manual on how to helm ocean racing yachts. I don’t need war and peace, I don’t need to be told when I’ve made a mistake, because I already know when I’ve made a mistake, I’m my own worst critic! When you successfully get through a double kite wrap, a pat on the back is sufficient.
Back on mother again with Michelle and this time she’s not seasick, hooray. Breakfast is fairly simple stuff, cereal, including porridge, coffees and teas, then a tidy up. A fairly simple lunch of tinned soup. Michelle is running this one and we have on the menu three options, pea and ham fusion with leek and potatoes, Italian minestrone with vegetables and a hint of meat and finally cream of pumpkin (Michelle was trying to pull a favour). And here is where we failed by over promising and under delivering. Michelle thought it would be a good idea to make bread! She had not made bread before on this boat and offering a fruit crumble before we had sourced the fruit! The bread has sort of worked and will certainly be a talking point. Michelle has called them croutons! ( I thought they tasted fine, if not a little hard on the outside.) The crumble is a nonstarter, after Michelle had rummaged in vain through dozens of food bags in a quest to find a can of anything fruit-like that she could add to what’s left of the Apples. But before all that we’ll be having a chilli con carni with rice. One of my favourite meals to make and I think everyone enjoyed. Only downside is that I’ve made far too much rice again. I can’t win. Either too much or not enough. The extra cooked rice causes Stuart and Petra a bit of annoyance as they’re mother after Michelle and I, so they get to cook fried rice with something again. Maybe they think I’m doing it on purpose. I do like a fried rice and Petra is very good at it.
Yet again kite mares on my mother watch continue. This time a big squall came through and we have to drop the code 2 and the Yankee 1 and wait for the squall to blow through before raising the Yankee 1 again. It never ends. So now we’re probably going to finish the ocean sprint on white sails, but we are flying along, even on white sails. We’ve taken a large chunk out of the whole fleet which is great news, just Warrant have gone into stealth mode, but I can’t see what benefits they’ll have as I can’t see where they could go quicker across the sprint. We will see where they pop up in 24 hours I suppose. Our tactic is just keeping the pedal to the metal until we get to Subic. We’re expecting some heavier weather in the next 24 hours, let’s hope we can get through the gate without any incidents.
There is always amusing stuff happening on board. During the kite drop process, Tony comes down to put his foulie top on, as it’s a bit wet up top. As he lifts his top, a large bag of opened peanuts falls out of his pocket beside the starboard wet locker bounce on the floorboards and the contents explode, cascading down the companionway to the port wet locker. Everybody laughs and starts taking the piss, then Tony just carries on, puts his top on, life jacket on and buggers off back on deck, leaving the bloody mess on the floor. Poor Michelle, who has a thing about cleaning, gets down on her hands and knees with a pan and brush and clears up the mess. I mean there are peanuts everywhere. An hour or so later, the cheeky bugger asks for a coffee. I won’t repeat what Michelle shouted back. It’s caused a bit of banter now, every time Tony asks for a coffee.
Helm Glory on Deck, Chaos and Bruises Below
As predicted, the heavier weather has arrived with loads of commotion up on deck as reefs are being put into the main. When I got up for my watch we have two reefs in the main, with the stay sail and the Yankee 3 flying. It felt cold during the night and for the 1st time on this leg, full foulies, and extra a layer of clothing before getting up on deck. It always takes longer to get dressed when foulies are involved, and I think we all need to consider this when waking the off watch. 30 minutes is not long enough to get your kit on and have a meal. We have over 30 knots of wind with gusts up to 40 knots, 5m seas. Great, can’t wait to get on the helm, after all, that’s what I’m here for. No disappointment from me, a max of 19.2 knots in 35 knots of wind, Lucy hit 18 odd knots and Tony 20.2 knots, but in the wrong direction 😂. A great morning of sailing, Hugh waves over the bow. Lots of wash outs which still makes everyone laugh. It’s still a heavy workout so I’m glad I’ve not put too many layers on. The sea water is still fairly warm so I’m just wearing my sandals so my feet are certainly getting a good saltwater bath. Everyone on the watch is helming now and Lucy is doing a great job and becoming one of our better helms, which bodes well for the rest of the race.
I still find it astonishing how much power and force, both the boats and crew endure. Hearing the weather has dramatically changed and there was a need for wet weather gear, I’m down below searching through my dry bags looking for suitable clothes. I know what I’m looking for and I know which bags they are in. I’ve laid the new set of warmer clothes on the bunk and just about to put them on. The boat is healed over at 45 degrees so I’m leaning on my bunk with my feet wide apart to steady myself, when the stern of the boat gets slapped with a large wave, I get “rag dolled”, thrown into the air and down the accommodation area, bouncing off the coffin bunk on my way to landing in a heap on the floor! Nobody saw it happen! nobody heard it happen, nobody heard me shout out! I lay on the floor for a few seconds to get my bearings and check everything out. Luckily just a sore elbow, another bruise to go with the collection. Another reminder that this boat is trying to kill me all the time. Needless to say, I got up, brushed myself down, got my gear on and back on deck for my watch, a little bit later than I anticipated, meaning I had breakfast on deck, so no need to add salt to my porridge.
Warrant have come out of stealth mode and as suspected are over 100 miles behind us and still in 2nd spot. Washington DC are in 3rd with Punta hunting them down in 4th and GOSH bringing up the rear of the chasing pack in 5th. We’ve put miles on the whole fleet, which is great news. The current standings will really help our cause overall and it would be great for Warrant to podium as they’ve had a disappointing race so far. The third group, Qingdao, Tong Young and Seattle are a day or so behind. The poor guys at the back of the fleet, Scotland and UNICEF must still be in a wind hole and are nearly two days behind us! We’ve got another 60 odd miles to go to our next mark before turning down across the top of the Philippines and then south to Subic Bay. We’re hoping just 2 to 3 days to go, but we must keep smashing the miles in as we could hit some lighter winds on our way back down into Subic Bay.
The weather is mental. Wind speeds in excess of 50 knots. As the watches rotate we’re absolutely flying down the waves, getting quicker and quicker. We’re regularly hitting speeds north of 20 knots in the dark with full cloud cover. No horizon with only the compass to stare at it’s hard going, but most of our watch taking a stint on the helm. Oli’s watch is not so fortunate with only a few able to helm in these conditions. With the wind direction not being as favourable as we’d like, a few gybe’s are required to get us round the top mark. Not something for the faint hearted, Gavin is up on deck for the manoeuvre. It is blowing a stink, we’ve made a couple of attempts to centre the main but get overpowered so we need to ease the main. After 2 or 3 attempts we manage to move the stern through the wind, gybe the Yankee, then the main. On this occasion we’ve gybed at watch change over so most hands-on deck. We go to bed exhausted and really ready for the race finish.
Disaster Strikes. We Keep Going.
Up at 5.30 for our next watch. I didn’t sleep very well but no reason for it. Although on a different tack as I struggled to get out of my bunk. No need to grumble, only a few days left, plenty of time to catch up on sleep. When I get up I am always looking for any news on the race, who’s gained, who’s lost, where everyone is placed etc., etc. There was a strange vibe on the boat and the on watch were a bit quiet. Ryan was looking through the hatch and laughing “well I’ve certainly never seen that before”
“What are you talking about Ryan” I returned
“The boom” he responded.
I climbed up the stairs to have a peak and there was a bloody big kink on the port side of the boom! Hmm I wonder what happened. When the on watch were going through a gybe evolution with Gavin at the wheel, just before they could finish centering the main, the boat has crash gybed, the boom has slammed across snapping one of the fore guys and bending the boom! One hell of a force. Luckily nothing else has broken or anybody getting hurt.
The guys couldn’t see the damage in the darkness, but daylight brings the realisation that we have a major problem. A photo of the damage is sent through to race control who have deemed the damage too severe to be able to use our main sail again! All that work and effort to be kicked in the stones again. We now have a couple of days with lightening winds to come up with a strategy.
Down comes the boom, a big enough job when coming into port, a hell of a job in 40 knots of wind. We 1st stick up our stay sail to give us some drive, then slowly pull in the main then Craig with my assistance pull the rest of the main down, it’s already got two reefs in it. The main is dropped onto the deck/traveller sitting on a fender and strapped tight unceremoniously. We can now see the damage up close, not good. It looks a lot worse up close, bent about 2/3rds along by the inspection hole and where our 2nd reef is attached. I wonder if they’ll deduct any points from our overall score, just to give us an even harder kick in the stones. The Yankee 3 was brought down during the storm as 9 hanks had come free from the forward stay and they need to be repaired or replaced before we can use it again and before we reflate it back in its sail bag. So that had to be dragged back and the Yankee 2 brought up and put up immediately. We then had to rig our tri-sail. It’s a small heavy weight sail normally used in severe storms, attached to the mast and flown like a fore sail with sheets. Once all that was completed, with the help from Ryan, I started work on repairing the Yankee 3’s hanks. The wind has now started to drop and our speed with it. So, we dropped the Yankee 2 and pulled up the Yankee 1. We need to fly the spinnaker, but we need to find a way to control a kite drop. Normally we would drop the kite in-between the mail sail and the boom. With no mainsail and the boom strapped to the deck, we need to find an alternative. As the day was coming to a close and with the fleet closing in on us, Gavin goes up the mast for a rig check, probably requested by race control. I was on the helm with a rolling sea and light winds. It doesn’t half focus the mind when your skipper or anybody else for that matter, is up the mast whilst you’re helming. Gavin gets back down, rig check complete, “OK let’s get the code 2 up, I’ve got a solution for the drop” . The plan is to drop the spinnaker underneath the boom, through the triangle made by the vang. We’re not 100 % sure it will work, but it’s the best suggestion we’ve got.
We have both watches up, most of us are knackered but crack on regardless. Putting up sails, taking them down, flaking them back into their sail bags then put them back in the sail locker. The kites, once brought down need to be wooled and packed away for future use. Both teams are working so hard. We believe we can still win this and continue supporting each other.
I awake for my next watch and the schedule is in, Warrant have really closed the gap on us as has the rest of the fleet, down from 140 miles to 80 odd miles. Gavin is never too keen to share the bad news with us. I am not sure why, but I think the whole team wants to know what’s going on, warts and all. This is going to be a hard ask, the maths don’t look good, but we’re still fighting hard as the wind continues to fail us. If the wind stays true, we’ve got a fighting chance.
We are just getting no luck with the wind and try as we may to come up with a new sail plan, we’re severely hampered without a boom and a main sail. We’ve got the wind seeker up again trying to get moving and getting nowhere. It’s depressing. As the day goes on, we change from white sails to spinnaker and back to wind seeker. We’ve done a 360 to try and find wind from anywhere without any real go forward. Warrant are less than 25 miles behind us, closer to shore, with more wind, well I say more! We would just like a little bit of wind please! It’s now obvious we’ve not only lost the race but potentially won’t even be on the podium. I feel shortchanged again. We’ve been strong from the get-go and yet again we just don’t get any luck. I’m sure the guys on the other boats would probably say the same thing. But we’ve been miles out on two races and lost. This one is going to be really hard to take. The guys on LBS just want to get in, get off the boat and have a beer. I just want to get in and have a day off. It’s currently 20.00 and we’ve still got a way to go without any wind, we should have been in by now, had the accolades and sitting at the bar.
Wind Gone, Boom Gone, Nerves Hanging On
I’m up on deck again as watch leader for my 22.00 watch, good visibility with some cracking stars. Just managing to muster 4 knots, not going to be enough to catch Warrant, but might help us to stave off Punta and GOSH. As the night rolls on the wind has died again, but we’re drifting faster than Punta and in the right direction, great navigation to find the current again! (There’s another blog topic, Gavin’s currents). Not much to do but watch out for fishing boats. A large pod of dolphins close up feeding on flying fish. We didn’t know what they were at first, but with a powerful torch, we could see them more clearly and I think it helped them find the fish. As the watches changed at 02.00, the wind dramatically shifted. We are now head to wind and hoved too and it’s really difficult to Gybe normally without any go forward, let alone our wind seeker. Both watches worked together and with a bit of thought, some teamwork, brute force and a bit of luck, we’ve pulled the kite through. If we had wrapped it our race was certainly done. I’ve gone to bed much happier and the team seems in better form.
Up for our 06.00 watch and not much changed, just plodding along at low speed. As we get on deck the wind has miraculously lifted and we’re making progress. We need to tack the wind seeker so we wake the other watch early and we’re getting closer to the next way point. We’re dogging fishing boats who, we think, are fishing for squid. On occasions they’re shining a laser pen at us to ensure we’re staying well clear. As the sun rises the black outline of the Philippines starts to show some colour. It is stunning. We’re nowhere near home and dry as the wind changes then drops again. We’re now less than 20 miles from the finish line and not moving! The mood has dropped a bit as a few massive Tuna breach the surface, probably chasing some squid that’s escaped the fishing boats.
Hearts drop again as we just see Punta ominously pop up behind us. We’re still stuck in a wind hole. We can see wind ripple on the water’s surface. We just can’t get to it. The wind suddenly appears and lifts LBS into life, giving us a fighting chance, but with just under 20 miles to go, it’s going to be close. As the wind starts to back, it looks like we’re going to be tacking all the way up to the finish line and with no main we will be looking over our shoulder at Punta, all the way in.
Tacking with the boom on the deck causes its own problems and we’re having to re-rig the tri-sail as it’s smashing the Main sheet primary winch. We run a line up the centre of the cockpit back onto a secondary winch, which makes tacking a lot safer. With the boom tied on the port side of the traveller it’s a bit of a challenge for everyone in the cockpit, but we’re getting the job done. After about 30 minutes we can no longer see Punta, they’ve got stuck in the wind hole and we can see Subic Bay. I think we’re going to make it. As we get closer nobody can see the finishing line markers and there’s no rib out to meet us, it all seems a bit tense but eventually we agree the finish line position as a massive oil tanker follows us into the bay. We tack again. Round up and that’s it, we’ve finished 2nd in race six.
Engine on, we drop our sails, at least we don’t need to worry about the main! Up go our banners and flags and we make our way into the marina, past the old American naval base. The media rib appears and starts taking their photos. As we reverse into our spot in the marina, a large number of supporters are on the dock cheering us in along with the crew of Warrant, who’ve done a great job. Tony has got a lovely surprise; his two sons have turned up to surprise him.
Another great job from the LBS crew, getting through the broken boom has been a major achievement, at one point it seemed like we would lose everything. Now for a few days of R&R