Race 10 - Day 29
Crew Diary - Day 29 17 April James Anderson
17 April

James Anderson- Day 29/17 April

Clink. Ting. Splosh.

The sound of my Spinlock tripping spike leaving my hand and entering the realm of Poseidon as I released the tack on the Code 3 that we had recently hoisted. With the lazy sheet caught under the bowsprit and opening on a gust, after trying to get a managed drop, it wrapped on the inner forestay.

Those who did Leg 1 would be very familiar with the balloon of kite, tangled Yankee and staysail halyards.

Several hours of trying to disentangle from the bottom, the top (shout out to our AQP Johnny for his hours up and down the mast) and finally a gybe to unwind. We did get it down with the whole crew up on deck from just after 11am to just before 1.30 pm. We all eventually ate. Only a small tear and puncture to repair taking about an hour on a later watch.

Plenty of activity on that morning's watch with lots of grinding to keep warm, quite a change from usual.

We are happy to see we have held position despite this and are making more progress to our nearest boats. We saw Dare To Lead briefly on AIS this afternoon and only 12NM away, with us making good ground on them at the time.

Seas are mostly moderate up to around 2.5m with a following swell pushing us around. Some squalls today with changes in wind speed 20 - 30+ knots and backing up to 20 degrees. All fun to helm in. Some great rainbows too - which reminded me of a Haiku I have had in my head for a while (thinking 5/7/5 syllables although starting to wonder if it is 7/9/7 - no internet!)

Unicorn (by me)

Spindrift dances, soars

Rainbows coalesce and fade

Narwhal dreams deeply.

That's all from me for now - don't forget I also blog about the race and Imagine your Korea on Marlow.com with pics and videos too.

James A.