Race 2 - Day 7
Skipper Report
11 October

Good morning campers!! I've woken up for the 15th time in one period of sleep fully ready for action and any eventuality. Last night was probably the worst night sleep wise yet on this leg. The crew have handled the boat perfectly in the heavy weather provided by mother nature. We have a conservative sail plan to reduce panic when the wind increases and damage for when we get into Cape Town so we don't have too many running repairs to do. You know what they say about sailing it's 90% boredom 10% panic; if this is true I would rather it be 100% boredom.

For those sat at home wondering what a sail plan is I'm just about to enlighten you. We have a sail locker in the bow of the yacht with nine sails of various different shapes and sizes. The largest the size of a tennis court and the smallest the size of half a volley ball court and the rest anywhere in between. We also have our Mainsail which has the facility of being four various different sizes. Now for those of you that don't sail you’re probably saying “why so many?” The reasoning behind all these options is really quite simple; the more wind there is, the less sail is required to move the boat at the same amount of speed. To be a fast boat you have to be able to judge these wind strength changes and put a larger or smaller sail up accordingly. Too much sail will leave the boat flat on its side instead of moving forward and too little will result in the boat just not going anywhere, which is not conducive to a race.

Yesterday we changed through our headsails which meant lowering them, unhanking (detaching) them, packing them and reversing that sequence to get a new one up. As the wind built we did the same with our Mainsail lowering it progressively. This requires lots of hard work from generally tired and wet people. Imagine trying to motivate the people in your companies at home if they haven't slept properly for 24 hours and been soaked to the bone for that entire time, it wouldn't be easy. Fortunately for me the crew onboard GREAT Britain are self-motivated and working hard to get the job done.

With the information above, I ask you all when looking at your Race Viewer (the pictures of the little coloured boats on your computer screen) - coffee in hand, feet up on the couch, petting your dog or cat (if you’re that way inclined) - to think of the hard long wet and cold hours of work your family and friends are putting themselves through to try and make this boat go fast and what an amazing thing they have achieved by crossing an ocean as a team of people. You cannot just step off for a breather or miss one of your 4-hour watches. It is one team, one dream and this is what has got us to where we are so far.

A special thanks to Sheila Pierce (Leg 7 Race crew) for supplying us with fruit cake onboard. It was absolutely delicious!!

Ciao for now

Andy