Race 2 - Day 9
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 9: Punta del Este to Cape Town
13 October

Jennifer Lumsden-gordon
Jennifer Lumsden-gordon
Team Sanya Serenity Coast
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After three and a half days of howling wind, rain, large sea swells and giant splooshing* I thought I may share with you the delights of wet weather clothing, it's wearing, it's removal and storage until in the next four hours, you have to put in on again.

*(splooshing – technical nautical term for having a wall of water hit you, from no particular angle, back, front, rear, sideways or full face that infiltrates your foulie defence system, usually 5 minutes before you are due to go off watch or the second you step onto the deck to go on watch or the most beloved scenario, as you have undone your multi layered face protection area to speak to the person next to you or to be able to hear shouted orders. Fab!)

So let's start with praising the lord and any other god who may be listening that the other watch has showed up and not just done a runner or gone on strike, as you scramble down the companionway, (the ladder of deliverance off going watch – stairway to oblivion, on going watch), you stagger to the aptly named 'wet locker'. If your fingers still work or have any feeling you wrestle with the clip on your life vest for at least 3 minutes while the remainder of the off coming watch trample over you and the on going on watch do the same in the opposite direction. This item is wet and will remain so until you put it on again. DO NOT attempt to wear this over dry clothing if you wish it to remain so. Put in wet locker or in green string bag at the end of your bunk as instructed by the skipper, which really helps in making sure the end of your sleeping bag gets with the programme and becomes... wet.

In the overhead removal of the foulie smock which includes the internal neoprene band and cuffs, water that was successfully repelled on deck, happily leaks all over your next layer, at the point of contact with the skin, ie, neck and cuffs. Following those contortions a small breather or time out is required to swear horribly and stare with malice at the person next to you, who having not only invaded what little personal space you have and podged in front of you to the wet locker because you took too long to tear the ruddy thing off.

The next item is somewhat gender biased as to the ease of removal. As a woman, the design of my salopettes, with it's handy 'drop down seat' for ease of use, was clearly aimed at the entertainment industry, more accurately the circus troop, as it requires the dislocation of your shoulder blades to get to the top of the zip to get it down. Personally I have taken to the abdication of any adult dignity and request the help of the person who has just hung up their gear and are heading to bed to pull it either up or down for me, depending on the on/off situation. To get them off you have to remove your boots, so can either to choose to stand on the floor so your socks get wet if they are not already or stand on your boots, which are wet, either way, job done.. wet socks.

I now am wearing an army buffalo top that is wet at the neck and cuffs and round the bottom where it was poking out under the neoprene band inside the foulies. Remove and stare with futility around your bunk for somewhere to hang it where it won't get your mattress wet or anything else, sigh, admit defeat and hang over end of bunk along with wet hat and buff and take the optimistic stance that at least you are on the lower bunk and no one is going to swear at you because your clothes are dripping on them. You then hang your extremely wet gloves under your bunk by the velco straps to drip overnight onto your boots to retain ultimate wetness. Due to the length of time that your hands have been wet and you have lost all feeling in them anyway you can no longer tel, having peeled off the aforementioned wet socks, whether your feet are wet or not. You will not remove any other layers, the fleece, baselayer top and bottom and under garments as they are DRY, sleeping in them ensures that they remain that way as there is no where dry to store them, you can have another 2 minutes in your bunk that would have taken to put them back on and really at this stage you can't be arsed. Wet socks are now hung above your head at the bottom of the bunk, I currently have 3 pairs hanging there, again in the futile hope they will dry, clearly not learning by experience. The added bonus here is that you can get to enjoy the smell throughout the night and not forget where you have left them, just follow the smell. Fall into sleeping bag, trying to avoid the end which is wet and laying your arms on the outer top to try and stop the wet cuffs making the top wet (and failing). Your small waterproof travel pillow you are retaining and not throwing away so as to sue manufacturer under the Trades Description Act.

Sleep, fitfully for at least 2 – 21/2 hours (if lucky). Get woken up, mostly thinking you are in a 1950.s holiday camp as Glenn walks up and down the corridor waving his torch around shouting WAKEY WAKEY...

Your middle section is dry, still – a miracle – but the upper and lower portions remain decidedly damp, you heave yourself out, panic as to how you are going to repeat that entire routine in the opposite rotation in time enough not to be late on watch as you know how you feel when the opposite watch is 30 seconds late. No-one needs that much negativity in their lives.

So on with the wet smelly socks, the damp buffalo top, the wet hat and damp buff, the wet foulies, damp inside/ wet outside boots and super wet life vest... Gloves don't get me started, that's an entire blog on it's own... All at either 5:00am, 11:30am, 5:00pm, 9:30pm or best of all 1.30am.. Repeat ad nauseum for 9 days or Leg 2 as we have come to fondly know it as... yes really...