Last night was a great helming night. I was down below in the Nav Station for most of the night, wrestling a particularly fierce bear for control of my keyboard, and as such allowed the crew to get on with the job of steering our big pink tin can. I left some instructions for the team on which angles to hit and where our course needed to be and when I came back on deck a few hours later (bear wrestling leaves me sleepy) I was amazed to see just how well the guys had done.
High speeds of 18 to 19 knots as they surfed downwind under spinnaker and an hourly average speed of about 12 knots! Fantastic. It's so relieving to see that our crew are now building more and more confidence behind the wheel both during the day and at night.
Helming is one of my favourite aspects of sailing and more often than not, when I'm behind the wheel, I get caught letting out little squeals and giggles...tough manly man squeals of course. For this first leg, it was very important to me that the crew got as much time behind the helm as possible. There's a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, it's super important that my team learn how to drive and as any budding teenager can attest - no matter how terrified you may be of driving your first car, the only way to do it is to strap in and feel the cheese. The slight difference here is that the road is constantly moving below you when you're driving a boat. Over the next eleven months, it's simply not possible for me to helm every hour of every day; the crew need to be able to step up to the plate too. Thus, learning to drive in Leg 1 is essential.
Secondly, no matter how excited the helm makes me feel, this race belongs to my crew and they deserve every chance they can get to enjoy helming as much as I do. So, to see my little pink munchkins not only all clambering to get on the wheel, but then actually nailing it, fills me with pride. Sure, they will make mistakes from time to time, we all do, but it's the drive (see what I did there) that they all have which shows me that's they're up for the challenge, and with time these mistakes will become less and less.
Leg 1 has been a steep learning curve for Liverpool 2018, but all I can say is that I'm super confident that we are now set up in a great position for future legs. Keep up the great work guys.
In other news below deck, our resident well-groomed Viking warrior has been doing some wrestling of his own. Jonny Prosecco (Pillar) was in the sail locker when he was viciously attacked by our Code 3 (heavyweight spinnaker). Luckily, the spinnaker was held back by multiple pieces of very tiny thin little bits of wool and was, at the time, caged in a fabric bag. Still Jonny fought bravely as the spinnaker lunged at him from its spot on the top storage bunk. He was nearly crushed by its weight however he fought free, smashed the Code 3 back in its place and proved that he was the Boss Man... maybe. Alas, he did suffer a minor injury in that he sprained his wrist. Luckily our boat's medical assistant, Dr James Dreamboat Macfee (not a real doctor) was at the ready to splint and wrap Jonny's wrist under the watchful eye of both myself and Dr Graham Dodge (actually a real-world doctor).
So, to sum up, always wrestle with the helm to hit those angles and avoid wrestling small stuffed bears and bagged spinnakers.
Ta
Lance.