Race 2 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 12: Punta del Este to Cape Town
16 October

Ernst-Jan Bultje
Ernst-Jan Bultje
Team Dare To Lead
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A short summary of our journey to Cape Town:

Surf, splash, reef in, reef out, splash, first position, surf, rain, very cold, surf, third position, splash big smile, splash, reef in, reef out, second position, everything wet, splash, surf, sunshine, splash, surf, reef in, reef out, 50 knots of wind, splash, surf, rain, first position, surf, big smile all the way!

An occasional freak wave that washes everyone on deck half a meter (the length of the short tether) from their position and fills the pit knee deep with water for a few seconds; when I'm in my bunk watching out my little window it looks like a sea life aquarium with the washed up squids.

Limerick from Stephen Carter:

There is on our boat a young Dutchman,

His name is poetically Ernst-Jan,

He can hand, reef and steer,

And is full of good cheer,

Especially when getting us wet, damn!

Dale poked his head out of the hatch with a big smile after I had done multiple surfs with continuous speeds of 22+ knots for more than half a minute, half a minute for a surf is very long. On the helm it feels like eternity because you can hardly see anything when on both sides of the boat water spews up like a fountain 2-3 meters high and directly into your face. The only way to know how the boat is doing is by feeling how she is when sliding down the wave. When sitting in the nav station or sleeping in the skippers bunk close to the rudders, it sounds like a high speed train is passing by so the skipper asks if everything is going well because we have the full mainsail, staysail and the yankee one up with 30-40 knots of wind. On the helm, it was just doable but the waves were getting rough (2.5-4 meters). 15 minutes later, I started yet another big surf and when the GPS speed went up to 26 knots (new PR!) we lost control and unfortunately crash gybed, at which point the skipper told us to put a reef in and the fun was over. On checking back through the logbook, I did an average speed of 16 knots in my one hour of helming.

With only a few days to go to Cape Town the game is on between Greenings, Garmin and Dare to Lead. With every passing 6 hour update, it's either Greenings in front of us or us in front of Greenings, but anything can happen the next few days.

Brought to you by the Dutchman on Dare To Lead, Out. (Ernst-Jan)