Race 1 - Day 29
Crew Diary - Race 1 Day 29: Liverpool to Punta del Este
18 September
11 shades lighter
Hi all,
This is the second blog of my trilogy and this is where the high sea tales get dirty. In the case of CV31 this refers to the bilges. As we sail south the seas and headwind mean that we are getting our fair share of excess water accumulating into the bilges of the boat. Specifically, the sail room bilges make for interesting cleaning every hour. The boat is constantly heeling over and the challenge is to get yourself into a small space below the floor boards and scoop out 2 to 3 buckets full of fairly rancid seawater whilst not injuring yourself or giving yourself and your clothes a rather lovely salt sea scrub – cleaning the heads is now seen as preferential even with its own challenges.
The 'beard off' competition has seen some interesting new developments. Most competitors now look like a cross between Grizzly Adams and Santa Claus although slightly disappointing is that all signs of beer bellies have completely disappeared meaning that our talents will not be required this Xmas for handing out presents. In fact, I am thinking of writing a book with a guaranteed success rate for losing weight and all it will cost you is £50,000 for the year - seems like a bargain! And you get a bit of sailing thrown in as well.
Speaking of sailing, we have had a good couple of days, even though we are heading into the wind which has produced its own challenges, just wish I had one leg longer than the other one, it would make it so much easier for navigating around the corridors. A constant reasonable speed from both watches has meant we have just covered over 240 miles today in our final quest for covering two oceans of the first leg. I can report that everyone on board is in reasonable spirits, considering that we have been on board for 29 days and only a few minor injuries acquired, mainly from the aforementioned bilge cleaning. Just honing up on my Spanish for the arrival into Punta del Este with 'cerveza, carne and ducha' top of my list but in no particular order.
Bye for now
Rupert
Stop press – a sail change has bought a flatter boat, the sun is shining and we are eating lollies. We may have lost this race but still have another twelve to go. The adventure continues.
IMAGE: On board Nasdaq.
