Race 5 - Day 15
Crew Diary - Race 5 Day 15
03 January

The clock in the galley was stuck at 6.30 for I don’t know how long. It had been fading for a while, new batteries only bringing it back to life temporarily. Its slow death is conveniently representative of my own perception of time fading.

Perception of reality is normally so intertwined with time. When you can't remember if something happened this morning, yesterday, or two weeks ago, did it happen at all? Battering through the swell the wind hole feels a distant memory and the 50+ knot winds before it? Forever ago.

We get up (eat), sail (eat), go to bed. Repeat. Sometimes it's light, its dark, doesn’t make any difference. Seconds, minutes, hours & days are meaningless, even in a race. The sole focus on sailing the boat as quickly as possible is liberating. A life of appointments, meetings, kick-off times and set times is another reality (apart from emails sending me the latest Villa scores).

Eventually, Dr. Klas salvaged the clock by removing most of its face. At least we now know what time it is, ready for watch change and log entries. And we’re closing on Newcastle, only two days or so away. Whatever that means.