A New Year

New Years Eve, it was haggis watch's night for two shifts 6pm to 10 pm and 2pm to 6am so at 11.30pm we were woken to see in the New Year. A few members of the crew went the whole hog and put on their kilts. We shared a bottle of whiskey and held hands across the wheel to sing Auld Lang Syne . It was a little difficult doing Roman Soldiers marching backwards and forwards across the deck but I had taught a few people and we managed a couple of verses. (For those of you who don't know Roman Soldiers you have two lines of people facing each other, the Romans and the English who march backwards and forwards singing at each other and gradually shooting bits of each other off until everyone is dead and then they all come alive again and dance around. Ok it sounds bizarre but it's good fun). Anyway after 49 years ( or at least as long as I can remember) of doing this on New Years Eve, the whole concept was ruined for me by Paul who said that in the time of the English versus the Romans guns weren't invented......bet no one else had thought of that........Noctons/Websters own up!
Traditionally I hate New Years Day, the party's over, everyone goes home and it's back to work. Well January 1st 2012 was great ! Flat sea, reasonable wind and beautiful sunshine, couldn't have been better and I felt really happy. I think we have all felt happier on this leg for a number of reasons. Mainly because there were less people which we thought would be a problem but turned out it was lovely to have space and catering and washing up when you only have 12 is a dream. Also generally the weather has been hot and sunny, although that had the disadvantage of light wind. Squalls were the only thing to look out for and towards the end of the race we started to search out the squalls just to get some wind. Squalls manifest themselves as banks of localised cloud on the horizon, they are dark and contain rain storms and wind. It usually means you get drenched but not always and a squall can mean the wind changes from 10 to 35 or 40 notts in minutes. When you see one coming you can either reef in the main sail or try to ride through it depending on the size you think it is.

It's behind you! (Squall coming)

One morning a tornado was seen off the starboard bow, however, contrary to Skip's blog it was nowhere near a "wizard of Oz" moment.......good story though!

Gordon's Tornado

Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere

Well the first goodbye was to Mandy James Penny Jean and Keith who had flown out to Gold Coast and were traveling on to Sydney for New Year. it was quite hard, I know the kids are grown up now but this was the first Christmas we had not spent together so to say goodbye on Christmas Eve was difficult. They all ran along the sea wall in their spectators shirts, waving the saltire that Catriona had bought in Glasgow as the waves crashed in. Yes it was rough and the swell big , more later!
Race start was very frustrating as usual not quite quick enough across the line and after sailing seven miles down the coast round a mark and up the coast to a final mark , yes we were in tenth!  The evening was of course Christmas Eve and I taught the other watch our family traditional song of " I'll telephone and tell a mr Santa Claus". My watch are too grumpy to teach...........something about old dogs and new tricks!


Christmas Day:- There was a lot of effort made to try to make Christmas special. We all woke up with chocolates in a net bag attached to our bunk. There was tinsel and baubles strung about the boat and the Christmas tree with the LED light I got from the kids was duly hung in the saloon and the light lasted 3 days constantly on. Paul had gone to a lot of trouble to buy and cook a fantastic breakfast and lunch. We had scrambled eggs on toast and at lunch time we had the works; Turkey roll, roast potatoes carrots and sprouts! Peas and gravy. Followed by Christmas pudding and brandy sauce, wine and crackers. It was great. The only problem was I saw it twice!! Yes,  in my wisdom had decided I did not need the sea sickness patch which goes behind the ear as I don't suffer from sea sickness!  

Boxing day, the swell had died down and it was very hot, a sign of things to come. The sickness passed and we had great food with all the leftover turkey, ham, mince pies etc. You know how I love the leftovers at Christmas! The next few days were like Mediterranean sailing, flat seas and very very hot. The winds were variable which meant that we had quite a few sail changes. Sleeping was a problem as the heat below decks was intense and you kept waking up in pools of sweat. I think waking up is the body's mechanism for telling you that you may well die as you melt into your plastic mattress.
The first two legs to Geraldton I was assistant watch leader which means you are responsible for the shift whenever the watch leader (Keith) is not on deck or on mother watch. Karen wanted a go at assistant watch leader so she did it for the next two legs. After various confrontations with some of the male crew she decided she'd had enough so although I'd got used to having no responsibility and didn't want the job back the skipper told me I had to do it so I'm back for this leg as assistant again!