Race 1 - Day 15
Crew Diary - Race 1, Day 15: Liverpool to Punta del Este
03 September

Hello people!

It is Bernd from Germany writing today's blog for you.

After a very tiring night with sailing again under our Code 1 to the south, I was given the honour to go up to the top of the mast. We had to wait for that moment for several days until the sea state was calm enough. So after breakfast (porridge again ;)) I was equipped with loads of cameras, a helmet and a headset. Yes, you heard right, a headset! I love it! It makes communication from the top of the mast into the cockpit or from the bow into the cockpit way easier. I was then ground up into the blue sky of another beautiful morning of sailing at around 10 knots under our Code 1 and was able to take some really cool photo shots and videos.

Besides that, I checked the chafe protection of our halyards and was glad to see that we don't have any problems there at all. It is very nice to see that all the work we did in Gosport, on delivery and in Liverpool was worth the effort. My third job to do at the top of the mast was to get our starboard yankee halyard back to the cockpit. It got lost several days ago in a windy headsail change evolution during the night. Unfortunately that was under my responsibility, which was maybe another reason why it was me to go up yesterday. But it was great fun though.

The rest of the day we spent mostly experimenting how to get the most shadow into the cockpit to keep grinders, trimmers, helmsmen and all other crew members on deck protected from the sun and the heat. Once we built our very fancy construction, we worked very hard on our grinding and trimming skills for the kites and made a good effort there. In the afternoon, we continued there and had a little splicing session to make some new sail ties and new-old lightweight/middleweight spinnaker sheets. After dinner we had a wonderful night of sailing with bright moonlight before we had to drop our Code 1 to Yankee 1 to avoid damage by a squall in the morning. That was a good moment for me and Andy aka. AK as sailmakers to check for some tears in the kite we thought we had spotted. Luckily, it was just dirt. Porridge maybe.

That's it so far from Qingdao! We are happy that we made it first to the scoring gate and hope that we make our way to and through the Doldrums as quickly as possible to keep our position! #fingerscrossed

Viele Gruesse insbesondere nach Bob und KF und speziell an die beiden Knirpse!!

Bernd