Date 9 May 2005
Location Past St Helena
Weather Warm with grey clouds
Heading 300 degrees
Week one and we have covered some 1,600 miles and had some interesting sailing.
We hanked on the number 1 Yankee during the pre start of the race in Table Bay and currently it is still dropped, flaked on the forestay, where it has been for the entire race. We have not had one single headsail change to perform.
The only time the spinnaker pole has not been in use is for the five hours we were reaching with the breeze just forward of the beam alongside BG Spirit a few days ago now. Apart from those few hours a spinnaker pole has been in use the entire time. The first night it was used as we took the heavy spinnaker down, we then poled out the headsail and the rest of the time we have had a spinnaker flying. The only changes we have made have been to change the spinnaker depending on the wind strength and the point of sail we have been on. Only a couple of these changes have been a drop of the first spinnaker before re hoisting the new spinnaker, all the others, and there have been a few now, have been spinnaker peels where we have hoisted the new spinnaker before dousing the original. As I noticed on the previous leg this is a manoeuvre that we have become very proficient at and I have seen this done better than the simple manoeuvre of reefing. We have yet to reef on this leg so far, so we shall see when we come to do it.
Apart from some smooth sailing we have been far from problem free. Yachts are very female in their make up. They require lots of attention, are very expensive to upkeep, and can be very temperamental at times. It is often said that the yachts take on the personality of the skipper, and I obviously like making life difficult and interesting for myself.
We worked very hard in Cape Town, with the Challenge Business shore team to fix the various parts of the yacht that were poorly after our Southern Ocean Leg. Admittedly I had quite a long list. Until day six of this leg, all was going well and then our gyro compass decided that it didn't want to play anymore. This then has a knock on effect for the wind direction and heading for the B&G read outs. Yet again we have no idea where the wind is coming from and if there has been a shift. So what is new, we sailed the last leg in a similar manner and it did us no harm. The good news is there is still power at the gyro so I may be able to become a gyro compass technician with email support and either fix the problem or completely break it!
The other failure we have had is with the weather fax. It has decided after working well in Cape Town that two days before the start it would no longer receive any weather faxes. We have tried all sorts and is an on going concern as this area of water has lots of information available for those that can receive it.
The latest little drama followed a rig inspection where we found a crack. After a rather hasty email to the Technical Team with photographs attached we have had the okay and are following a continuous safety check. Fortunately for my mast monkeys the yacht when sailing down wind is flat and not as bouncy for trips to the top of the mast.
It is strange that the defects almost always arise on a Friday just after office hours. The Technical Team then have to support a slightly stressed and close on losing it skipper until Monday when they can communicate with manufacturers direct and solve the problems we have developed onboard.
So as usual there is never a dull day at sea and there is always something to do apart from just sail the yacht to Boston. And my crew wonder why I hardly sleep.
Dee Caffari/Yachting World, 9 May 2005
