Since writing last a great deal has happened. Sometimes we have a series of very demanding watches and all you want to do is dry off and collapse in your bunk. So apologies for the delay in posting this.
All is going well on ‘Welcome to Yorkshire’. We have led the race for quite a few days heading into the dreaded 'Doldrums'! A windless band of ocean stretching from east to west, which likes to leave boats in 'wind holes' for days on end. This particular area sees high and low pressure systems colliding, giving birth to the hurricanes and storms that rocket through the Caribbean Islands and south east states of North America. Many of our views on what we expected did not transpire (thankfully!) and we only spent less than half a day 'bobbing' around in a windless part of ocean!
We are now through and currently beating into the winds we have, desperately trying to pick up the trade winds that will blow us all the way to Rio!
As for the race itself it has been pretty full on. We have led for much of the way, but it seems that some of the other boats strategies on getting through the ‘Doldrums’ have paid off a bit better than ours! We are currently in third place behind 'Singapore' (2nd place) and ‘Gold Coast Australia’ (1st). We keep reminding ourselves that this is a marathon and not a sprint. Everything is still very much up for grabs over this last stretch of 2,000 miles.
Life on board has taken on a more customary 35 degree tilt as we 'beat' into the wind using our white sails. I for one am pleased to see the end of the downwind sailing under the huge spinnaker sails from our wardrobe. Spinnakers take an awful lot of management to keep flying, not to mention the concentration on keeping that fine balance of the sail stalling and flying to attain the perfect speed.
We have seen some amazing sights over the past few days. On the evening of regaining our wind from the ‘Doldrums’ we witnessed the amazing sight of phosphorescence given off in our bow wave, lighting our way for miles! I can only describe it as a carpet of stars stretching as far as the eye could see! We also saw huge mysterious balls of luminescent light all around the boat. As far as we could determine we believe that these were huge Jelly Fish, migrating across the Atlantic! You can begin to understand why the original mariners came back to land with tales of 'strange' creatures or ghosts flying past their ships!
Flying fish have been a common sight since we left Madeira. The only difference now is that they are getting bigger the more south we go! They jump out of the water and seem to fly for ages! I wonder if a 'school' of flying fish become a 'flock' of flying fish once they take flight?
As a crew we are definitely entering the 'endurance' part of our trip. Life is made difficult below decks with our little fibre-glass world taking on a new angle of 30 degrees. Actually being on deck is the easy part. Manoeuvring from your bunk to the galley is a challenge to say the least! Watch change-over seems to resemble a team game of 'Twister'!
We are also enjoying the daily increase in temperature as we continue to sail south. On deck seems to be fine, it's only when you go below deck and the sweltering heat hits you. We have a few fans, but on this current point of sail, we can’t have any hatches open other than the main companionway located in the cockpit.
Despite all these challenging conditions we are working well together as a crew. I am on Starboard watch, and am very lucky to be working with some people who are very committed to sailing, but do it in great humour! Our recent chat involved describing who would be your all-time top four people you would have dinner with! There were some very interesting parties suggested, but I went for Nelson Mandela, Eric Morcambe, Horatio Nelson and Bill Beaumont!
As a watch we have had a very demanding 72 hours, as we have had to undertake a great number of sail changes (mostly at night). This has often resulted in a good dunking when on the foredeck! The saving grace is that the water is warm and the wind dries you off within 10 minutes! Totally different from our old training ground, the English Channel!
Going to turn in for a few hours now, so I can be fresh on for my next watch (22:00 - 02:00), keen to hunt down our Austrailian / Singaporian quarry!
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