Race 2 - Day 12
Crew Diary - Race 2 Day 12
26 September

24 hours on board

The first session of helming with a spinnaker today. Slightly shaky start but with some experienced advice, I soon got into the pattern of the waves and wind. It’s such great fun to steer a racing yacht this big across the Atlantic Ocean, with glorious sunshine and a big grin.

Image: Gregor Craig

Off watch during the afternoon, so I visited one of our two ‘spas’ on board. Had a lovely shower (wet wipes), a shave (it’s possible), and a set of clean clothes. A new man emerged! Back to bed to catch up on sleep dreaming of dinner (which turned out to be a lovely potato and vegetable stew with rice).

Back on the helm during the evening watch (19:00-23:00), now trying to steer with the spinnaker in the dark. More great advice and we were off across the waves at 8-12 knots. Picking a reference star to aim for was the trick. In fact, I aimed between two stars. They looked after me very well, so I named them Emma and Sara (you guess why).

Back to bed and sleeping well until a loud shout for “all hands on deck.” The wind had started to gust strongly, overpowering the spinnaker, so it needed to come down… fast! With the extra crew on deck, the spinnaker was down in 15 minutes and soon the Yankee 1 was up, replacing it. We stuck to the training and the situation was dealt with. Superb teamwork.