Deepest Blue

Just off the Portuguese coast, near Lisbon

I noticed during the heavy weather in Biscay that the wind felt warmer, the water was not as chilled as that of the Channel. As we left the Bay of Biscay the water colour changed from a grey-green to light aqua blue. Absolutely beautiful!

Now we are sailing down the Portuguese coast, and entered true deep water sailing. The water colour is the most amazing deep blue. After being ‘knocked about’ for 48 hours in the Bay of Biscay, it was a welcome respite to have some nice cruising weather. We are of course racing, but under these conditions ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ almost sails herself!

It was a great opportunity for the crew to take off our soaking heavy weather ‘oilies’ and put on some shorts and t-shirts and enjoy the warm rays of the sun! We all still did our duties (cooking / engineering checks / bilge emptying).

The field of yachts has now formed into three elements. ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’ is currently in a battle with ‘Derry-Londonderry’ and ‘Singapore’ in the middle element. The leaders are now about 100 miles ahead, and we ourselves are ahead of the 9th / 10th place by 116 miles! We are very much remaining competitive, and hunting down the pack leaders.

Madeira is only a day or so away, and we are hot on the heels of ‘Derry-Londonderry’. It’s hard to focus on our own game plan when we have such a prominent ‘target’ taunting us, just in front! It’s amazing to think that after just over a thousand sea miles, we are all still very close. At this point the race will be won by whoever concedes the least errors! A delayed sail change or incorrect course can cost a boat the lead, or the ability to overtake those in front.

Spirits on board are very positive. Each day we have a crew meeting where our Skipper Rupert gives us the latest update on the race and the weather for the next 24 hours. It’s also an opportunity for us as a crew to raise any issues that have upset anyone. It’s easy in this tight environment to upset people! The tiredness and watch routine can cause the simplest little issue to become a serious one. So we conduct our ‘group therapy’ on a daily basis to ensure that we enter port with the same amount that we left Southampton with!