Race 10 hasn’t started the best for me. It’s been a difficult and emotional week, all around the watch system and relationships with my crew mates. I’m probably reading too much into things and being over sensitive. The Clipper Race has had a bigger mental impact on me, than I thought was possible.
I start week 35 as mother and hopefully a chance to defrag and reflect. Being on mother duty gives me a chance to catch up with both watches and in private with some of my crew mates. It’s not easy to have a private conversation with crew on the boat, especially if they’re on the other watch, but whilst on mother duty, you do get a chance to catch up with the whole crew.
Before breakfast even starts, I get a chance to discuss how I’ve been feeling with Zoe, our 1st mate. She did ask how I was feeling! I think she knew that I wasn’t myself hence why she asked me the question. It’s not that I want more responsibility, I just want to be listened to. We had a hug and hopefully that was that sorted. I’m not sure if Zoe will pass the info onto Gavin, but I hope so. Breakfast was fairly simple, no porridge and the generator wasn’t on, so no toast. Just cereal and fruit with a mixture of hot drinks. All sorted and get my head down for a few hours whilst Kerry holds the fort. Lunch is the good old BLT, what’s not to like? We’ve got a massive pack of streaky bacon to fry off, half for lunch and we’ll keep the rest back for dinner. We collect the bacon fat for David to use for making some potato bread. Whilst we’re in between jobs I have a heart to heart with Kerry just so he knows where I’m at. He’s been really supportive the last few days, even though he didn’t know what was up. I get a chance to have a long chat with Tony and as is always the case with these things, we both could have been better in our communication with each other over the past week. We had a hug and hopefully that’s sorted. The BLT’s go down well, anything around a bacon sandwich goes down well! Kerry goes for a lie down whilst I start to prepare dinner by boiling the rice for egg fried rice. I’m also able to have a long chat with Lucy to explain how I’ve been feeling, we have a good chat and finish off with a hug. Can’t beat a good hug to melt away your problems on a boat. My 1st time cooking egg fried rice on the boat, it’s not that difficult, it just makes such a bloody mess, it all goes down well and Kerry and I clean up. One last round of hot drinks for the on watch crew before the kitchen closes and another successful mother completed, I’ve been able to clear the air with some of my crew mates and probably one of my better nights sleep on this Leg, so far.
Refreshed, I’m back into racing the boat. We’re sitting in 1st spot, but GOSH have managed to slink off in a different direction, gybing to the east, whilst we have gone to the west. We’re travelling faster than them so we will see where they are when the schedule comes out. We’ve now also decided to gybe to the east to try and catch some better wind and get closer to the rum line. The wind is steady and helping us get south.
We’ve been messing about in the cockpit today, adding some boat videos for marketing. Not sure how it will go down as we’re videoing different ways to go under the traveller. The traveller is a fairly sensitive topic when it comes to clipper racing but we’re having a laugh. Kieke is on the camera and Matt tries to limbo dance under the traveller with a “tiny” bit of help from yours truly, Ollie does a dive and rush, I go for an M&M gobble trail, Lucy was pulled leg first and Tony went for the worm approach, Watch this space for the full video.
I get up for my evening watch and as I lean out of my bunk I feel a sharp pain in my lower right back. I can’t move! My back has gone into spasm, I eventually manage to get my feet on the floor and abandon the idea of putting my socks on but I’m in terrible pain. I eventually get dressed and make my way to the galley. Mitchell gives me some pain killers and I work my way up on deck. I’m struggling to move and I can’t really stay on deck in this condition so I reluctantly head back below deck and lie down on the galley benches, trying to catch my breath and get in a comfortable position. I’ve asked my watch mates to inform Gavin and he comes down to the galley and helps move me to the mother bunk but I’m in agony. When the watch changes I move over to my own bunk, find some pain killers in my wash bag and some cream to rub into my back. I flop into my bunk moving slowly trying to find a comfy position and eventually dose off. I wake to hear that we’ve wrapped the bloody kite! Bugger, lots of commotion and the guys have done a great job, it had double wrapped on the inner forestay whilst we had a ridding turn on the spinnaker sheet winch. Fortunately it has happened at watch change over so both watches, excluding me as I’m still struggling to get out of my bunk, were up, dressed and ready to help. The guys managed to pull it down the inner forestay, through the forward hatch and into the sail locker. I’m feeling really guilty as I’m still in bed. I manage to drag myself up to see if I can do anything useful. I help David pull the sail tack & clue back down into the accommodation and help him run the lines,I then help the guys check the kite for damage. We have a couple of holes at the head and a small rip on the tack. Petra and Kerry are on it and the sewing machine is up and running but I’m really struggling, I take some more pain killers and get back into my bunk. The guys have done a cracking job with the Code 2 up and flying, we’ve probably lost an hour or so of time but back in the race. As the schedule comes out we’re still in 1st spot, but only just. We’re now further East than anyone else with GOSH in 2nd spot to our west for some reason, but it’s close.
The Code 1 is repaired and back in its bag ready to fly again, but with the wind increasing, the Code 2 is working well so no need to change, just yet. After a couple of watches below deck, I pull up my big boy pants and haul myself back up on deck, just to give a hand and hopefully try and free up my back. We can see GOSH to our starboard, and unfortunately in front of us. We will need to Gybe before we exit the sprint. As suspected, wrapping our spinnaker has slowed us down a bit, but the race is still on. We watch GOSH gybe in front of us, they obviously aren’t going to make the mark, so like us, they’ll have to gybe again. It’s our turn to gybe, I’m on the working sheet as I don’t have to move too far. Our 1st attempt was aborted, the sheets got tangled, but was fine on our 2nd attempt. I shouldn’t have got involved because as the night wore on my back stiffened up and I’ve had to go to Gavin for some stronger painkillers and back to bed. It’s really frustrating. I’m not able to pull my weight and I feel I’m letting the team down, especially with “only” a bad back. After another nights sleep, I awake to another drama. I get up to go for a pee and to find out what’s happened. I’ve not got the full story yet but the spinnaker halyard pulley has failed again, damaging the halyard and having to drop the spinnaker. I was oblivious to the whole thing! After I’ve been to the heads, my back gives out again and I slowly work my way back to my bunk. I’m getting really frustrated and I’m sure my crew mates are as well, but there’s not much I can do. Lucy has asked if I could do mother watch, I’d love to, but I can’t stand up. I don’t know what I can do to help the boat whilst in this condition, I’m just a passenger!
After lunch I get some pain killers off Gavin. We’re having a midday meeting to discuss our position. We’re just in 2nd place, not much between GOSH and ourselves only metres. GOSH are still out to the west whilst we are tight to the rum line. We have gained on every other boat bar Punta who have got a little closer to us, but really nothing to worry about just yet. The crew is in high spirits, with great helming all round and the recovery from the spinnaker puller earlier in the day. A big shout out to Zoe going up to the top of the mast in this sea state to repair the pulley.
We go around the crew for a fist of 5 after all our crew briefings. For the 1st time on the race of your life, I’m only a 3 due to my bad back, it’s really pissing me off. I get my pain killers off Gavin and stay on deck for my watch. I don’t do much, but at least I’m back on deck. It’s a start and hopefully I’m on the mend. By the end of the watch my back is getting stiff again, so glad the watch is over and another rest. The schedule is in and GOSH, have hardened up and headed back to the rum line. With their better wind angle they’ve pushed ahead of us to about 6 miles. Heads down and chase them down. Just can’t wait to get back on the helm when my back gets better.
Had a better day after some pain killers. It takes the edge off the pain so I can get some movement into my back and stretch before my back starts to spasm. It’s a sharp muscle pain and I think I’m over the worst. Rule to oneself, bring a lot more drugs!
We’ve had a steady day today I’ve been on the end of the spinnaker trim for a few hours, we’ve gybed twice, dropped the code 2, raised the code 1, found some more holes in the code 1 that we’d missed from the wrap the other night so dropped the code 1 and raised the code 2 again. As I come off watch, the code 1 is being repaired to be flown again as the wind begins to drop. The wind is due to fall away into a possible wind hole again, so the fleet will compress again, here we go again, with a final race to the finish line. GOSH are just 19 miles in front and occasionally on AIS, shall we go East or West. Not too sure yet. Another good watch, GOSH seem to be getting a bit better wind and have a better wind angle and have put a few miles on us in the last 6 hours. As the wind starts to drop again all we can do is keep the boat as straight as possible. We saw a pair of whales during the watch. The thought is they were Sei Whales! But didn’t get a really good look at them. But it’s great to see the wildlife back.
The back is slowly getting better, I’m back on the grinder and spinnaker sheets in this watch. Still a little bit of pain. I hope to get on the helm during the next watch.
Another watch and much the same as last. However as the Sun rises and the clouds turn a bright pink, the wind has started to ease! Both GOSH and Punta have gone into stealth and as predicted the fleet has started to compress. I doubt if anything surprising will happen over the next 24 hours as there’s not many places for the boats to go, but we’ll not be able to glean much info from our nearest competitors as they, like us are all in stealth mode.
My back is still giving me a little pain and trying to get drugs out of Gavin is harder than getting on the bloody podium. Anyways, I’ve got up on deck, to find not much wind, but we’ve caught up with GOSH during the last watch we’ve taken a few miles out of them overnight and we can see their steaming lights. They must have been stuck in a big wind hole. We’ve picked up a little wind but GOSH have gybed away from us heading South. t’s a really frustrating thing when the wind starts to fail, your in the hands of the gods and it becomes a bit of a lottery.
As the day continues, it’s all very similar, low winds and continuous trimming of the sails. It’s Sunday Sundown, Tony and Matt have made some popcorn to go along with our cans of pop. They’ve also given us a spaghetti with a tomato bolognaise sauce. Matt has also introduced a new murder mystery!!!
Only Matt knows who the murderers are, they have already murdered Kieke and we now need to vote for who we think the murderers are, a bit like traitors on water. We go around the crew to collect the votes in and the reason for the nomination. The votes are in, Alistair has the 2nd highest number of votes, but Michelle got the highest number! Matt, gleefully announces, “it’s not her!” So she’s now dead! Sound familiar? I didn’t vote for her, but I have my suspicions. So we now have two crew mates dead!
Another great week on the water, some great sailing, some great banter and apart from the bad back, all is good. Certainly in the top 2 and also picked up an unexpected bonus point in the sprint. But with these wind holes popping up, it’s going to be a close run thing into the finish. As the Sun sets, let’s hope for more wind next week.