Hello from about 300 miles off the coast of Mexico as we race
down towards Panama. It is now starting to get hot, but will become fairly
unbearable once close to Central America.
I thought I would let you know what the first 5 days have been
like and what I have learned.
The race start was a most hectic affair with the 12 boats
tacking furiously in order to go under the Golden Gate Bridge at exactly the
right time. I was pretty exhausted by the time we settled in to our direction
south as I get given many of the heavyweight jobs or the infamous grinder. You
may well have seen these on boats where you turn winches furiously by mean of two
rotating handles. We saw a large liner making its way up into San Francisco and
only the other yachts as they went their various ways. Since then we have seen
nothing but sea. These oceans are vast and we have never been closer than about
300 miles from the coast.
Our skipper has adopted a bold strategy. She has gone out west
to find the winds as they are often less strong nearer the coast. This is brave
because it meant we did more miles than our competitors and after 3 days we
were lying in 12th place, last.
Today at mid-day we are now heading on a direct course south
east and are at the top of the speed charts as we have better winds. We are
moving up the placings and the next couple of days will be key.
I am now getting into the rhythm of living very close to 19
other people at close quarters and with the sleep patterns. I have spoken of
the two 6 hour daily watches and the three 4 hour watches at night. Well, with
the noise of winches above your head, the heat and people sailing the boat,
checking the engine and working in the navigation station, I am actually
getting 2 hours of sleep and 4 at the most for the longer watch. And I smell.
Our allowance of 6 wet wipes per day having sweated buckets on various jobs on deck
and down below, do not quite fit the bill. Peppermint oil in my boots is
helping a little. My bunk, which I share with Greg is about 4ft 10 ins high and
has just 19 inches between the mattress and the ceiling (deck)!! Quite hard to
get into for someone my size.
When on watch there are many jobs to be done besides actually
sailing the boat. These include cleaning the two toilets (heads), emptying the
bilges, adjust halyards, sheets and ropes as anti-chafe measures, filling in
the log and interestingly, downloading statistics every half hour on our performance
(speed, wind direction, wind speed and others). We can then look to see who are
the best helms and how we can squeeze more pace out of Heidi.
The food is good considering that the daily budget is £3.50 per
person. I was glad to help in the shopping for the food and storage of it on
the boat. It all adds to the knowledge and experience.
Not much wildlife about and many people are hoping we see
whales. It was lovely yesterday though as we had several dolphins darting
around the boat at breakfast time, 6am.
Must get some sleep now, all four hours if its not too hot and
noisy.
Cheers from the Pacific.
Malcolm
NOTE: For those reading this via email update, don't forget to
visit the blog at https://malclipper.blogspot.com where you can pledge
support via donations to Malcolm's chosen charities - the Bobby Moore Fund tackling
bowel cancer; the James Whale Fund for kidney cancer; and Prostate Cancer
UK.
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| Relaxing on deck! |
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