Race 2 - Day 9
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 9
23 September

For many of us, this is the longest we have ever been at sea. The last few days have proven how the two watches “Toddlers” for muster numbers 1-10 and “Teens” numbers 11-20 have grown into a well-oiled machine. Sail repairs have been done on two of our Kites and lighter winds and smaller swells allowed us to train more people at helming under the kite. The ‘big mama’ rollers and night hours on this trade winds leg still make it difficult to tame the TROL (read the first letters of the logo top to bottom of the kite) but at least the amount of flying fish attacks has gone down.

Yesterday was sort of a clean-up day for many of us – first we took salt-water bucket showers behind the helm, helping each other shampoo and rinse our greasy hair. Later, some of our laundry decorated the guard rails and with this, a new fashion trend emerged amongst the crew – large brim sun hats and white long-sleeve sun tops… not sure how long mine actually stayed white though. I can say that washing yourself in underwear while wearing a life jacket and being clipped on was certainly a new experience. I still would have preferred a body scrub in a Hamman to get off the layers of sun cream and sweat. On the positive side, the newly earned tan blends away our bruises and makes funny animal prints appear under the various footwear of our team. Zebras and leopards are the most common prints that will make us chuckle for a while. We are feeling quite like a zoo having seen blows and a disappearing tail of a distant whale.

Spinnaker sailing is intense and the heat above and below deck doesn’t help recover from sleep deprivation. Nevertheless, the crew is hanging in there and looking forward to their mate getting the medical help required on the Cape Verde Islands. It’s the little joys of food and music that easily make everything better. The other day the oncoming smell of a wonderful pancake breakfast made all the kids on the Big Blue Boat giggle for at least an hour. We wish both Ziv and Oggie a speedy recovery and hope to see them soon back on the big blue boat.