We finished race one quite away from the originally intended finish point due to the high pressure weather system bringing the fleet very slight winds….and fog, lots of it.
It was damp, dank, Victorian England Jekyll and Hyde kind of fog that swoops and smothers, muffling sound.
And then to become excited by actually seeing stars up in the sky was amusing to us all. But after you’ve spent most of the watch with eyes seriously peeled on I spy a ship or what’s that noise look out, and you realise that the sound of the day tank pump isn’t actually a tanker bearing down on you or a RIB sneaking up behind you when you fire up the radar, stars are in fact a great joy.
We had all hands on deck with an hours warning that we had three hours in which to be the boat closest to a certain point in order for points to be allocated. Woo hoo race one ‘done’.
Chasing down our friends and rivals we stealthily helmed and trimmed our way to within literally half a boat length of the end of OneDLL’s bow.
Not first but neither were we last and we had had our first real experience of racing a 40 tonne yacht.
Motoring the rest of the way to Brest so that the crews on some yachts can meet their hospitality commitments doesn’t seem quite the end one should have to a yacht race, however pragmatism tells me that without sponsors we wouldn’t actually have this race in the first place.
Ho hum, no escaping the realities of corporate life after all. 😉
spinnakersandspokes 