South Pacific!

What a difference a Flav makes. Well I suppose it helps that we have clear blue sky some days not a cloud in sight. The boat is flat just the steady rock from side to side as we sail in the calm South Pacific. The mood on boat is full of the joys of spring, optimistic and fired up under our new leader. Well how is he different? To be fair we needed a change and so he had a good chance anyway. He started with a safety brief and before the start we had a meeting to show us the route he wanted to take what to expect etc . The race start was fantastic we were only metres away from the other boats and because we were on the right tack others had to give way to us as we barged our way through the fleet to cross the line first or we thought we did unfortunately us and one other boat allegedly crossed the line too early and had to go back round the pin end boys then over the line again. Never the less it was really exciting and to sail back under the Golden Gate Bridge and back out to sea was fantastic. Mandy tells me that the crowd on the shore were going wild!

The Crowd!

Race Start

Race Start

The first night we poled out the yankee 2 until the early morning when we put up the medium weight kite (MW) , yes at last down wind sailing , this is what we were told most of the race would be like. Day 2 and we had a wrap, that is the spinica wraps itself around the fore stay or if unlucky both fore stays. We were so impressed as Flav took control of the situation and we gybed and headed port and starboard until the wrap came undone. Next evolution was to peel the spinica most of us had never done this,basically you have two spinicas up at the same time one in front of the other hen you take down the one you don't want. That way you do not loose speed. Day 4 we have a serious wrap in the night this one is round both stays and a halliard . What a mess it would not come down . Flav was up the mast hanging upside down swinging around like a monkey between stays for about 2 hours , he came down exhausted having unwrapped some of it. Baz and I spent the rest of our shift untangling it from the bottom. At shift change we were sent to bed by Flav even though we wanted to carry on. Apparently he went up the mast again for a further few hours. When we came on shift it was still in a mess back to it on the for deck unwrapping it from the bottom and Flav had another go up the mast in day light. For no apparent reason one last turn and it fell to deck. We have had 3 wraps and the kits have come down with no more than a few pin prick holes and a few minor snags to repair we have been so lucky. However I did ask the question what is the point in having in having a safety belt in the car and not wearing it. We have an anti-wrap net on board but Flav was not used to them or was not fond of using it. A bit of persuasion and we are now using it and up until now we have had no more wraps. The only problem is we were doing well in the table but lost considerable time , the main one took 24 hours to undo. So why else is Flav good , a list, some you may think are peculiar to comment on , he is always on deck , he runs every evolution, ( easy for the watch leaders ) he congratulates us ,he is positive, he makes drinks, swept the ghetto floor, apologises when he thinks something or a decision is his fault. Basically he has everyone behind him and the team want to do well as much for him as for ourselves. If anything he is too much of a training skipper or a mate as that is what he is used to doing, however that is no bad thing as the kites have hardly been out of the bags so far on this trip so we could all do with the lesson. Even Keith is right behind him, need I say more?
So what is life like on this leg? Well as I sit here writing I am dripping in sweat, it is bright blue sky very little wind and we have the light weight kite flying. This requires far more work than the white sail as we need someone to helm someone to stand and time, holding a rope pulling in as a third person grinds on the coffee grinder. The art is for the timer to watch the edge of the spinica and release the sheet until the sail folds at the edge then he says grind and the grinder winches in a bit of sheet until it unfolds this happens continuously and gives the trimmer a bad neck as they are permanently looking up. We rotate every 30 minutes. We are also
jibing quite a lot and this process takes about 20 to 30 mins and involves erecting a new pole (quite heavy) and taking down the other one. So we have been doing this for 2 weeks with the odd day when the wind is so light we have to put up the wind seeker , a light weight head sail like a yankee.
The food has been good , the fresh food lasted a week or so and the new space food is better than the old stuff. As you can all see from the race viewer we are having a variety of success, at the moment not
good in 9th. basically if the breeze gets up we go fast but in light winds we just die in the water. Not sure if our boat is heavier or what but that seems to be the situation. We are all trying really hard even in this
heat, Flav is all over us trim trim trim, re distributing weight around the boat , only filling one water tank , all the right things. If we do not do well it won't be for lack of trying. Wild life has been quite good, we have seen a lot of dolphins , the odd whales from a distance and had a few birds as passengers some land birds migrating stop for a rest and some sea birds in particular the brown booby, quite rare, usually seen on boats or ships having a ride! And making a mess all over the deck! One day we had one on the mast, one on the sail at the front and one on the spinica pole. The best thing though has been the hammer head shark and the 5 turtles, we have seen one or two very close to the boat one nearly overtaking us as we
wallowed with no wind. But the most amazing sight was a turtle swimming along with a bird standing on its back.
Everyone, new leggers and all seem to be having a good time, the heat is getting to us a bit, but as we keep saying it's so much better than the last leg. I am on mother watch today with George so have been in a red hot galley. Bread making now takes place in the night as the oven heats the boat up too much.  Have made biscuits and lemon cake today for a change, don't be too impressed they are mixes just add egg and liquid! So better go and have a shave and beard trim as mother watch is the day for all these things!! I expect the race will be cut short in a few days as there is little wind and we have a certain time to get to the Panama canal for our slot. I hear the weather is cold and wet at home, it seems a long way from here but I sympathise as I do know a lot about cold and wet! Hope you are impressed with a new blog in the middle of a race. Thanks for all your support, this is David Webster reporting from the South Pacific!!!

Sailing off into the sunset - Panama here we come