Race 13 - Day 14
Crew Diary - Crew Diary: Race 13 Day 14
12 July
Its Day 14 on lil’ Washy and we’re bobbing along in the Atlantic. We are just over 680 miles to finish and our previous good positioning within the fleet is at jeopardy with the talk of more wind holes!
This blog comes about courtesy of Greg our media mogul. During our midday meeting today, he said that he is severely lacking in media content from the crew, and he knows for a fact that there are pictures of the “big fat whale” which he then proceeded to point behind him to where I was sitting. I immediately demanded an apology, I thought I’d lost some poundage on this venture, but clearly Greg thought otherwise! He did then apologise and explained he didn’t mean me :)
Speaking of big fat whales, we have had several encounters on this leg. Just the other morning as we were due to go off watch, a sperm whale emerged 10 feet from our port beam, totally on a collision course with the boat. He/she then turned 90 degrees and headed off to the rear of the boat and around us, probably thankful that he took a look at what he was about to hit.Luckily the skipper didn’t see this incredibly close encounter as her stress levels may have peaked.
Then today as my watch went down for lunch, we heard cries of whales again. And would you believe it a pod of Orcas were swimming about. Both sights were truly spectacular. I’m sure there are some photos somewhere from one of the crew, but I’ll leave that for Greg to insult them and then upload the piccies.
As for the sailing,it is fabulous. After our very sad goodbye to our dear Cat very early on, we had all resigned ourselves to just trying to catch the last boat. To our utter surprise not only did we catch the last boat, but we also moved up the pack and literally got back in the race. On one day we averaged 14.5 kts speed and in a 24 hour period amassed 303.5 nm. Totally amazing stuff and it gave us all a huge boost after losing one of our teammates.
I never thought I’d love this adventure as much as I have. For all the complaining I do (good humuredly I might add) it really has been everything I had hoped for. From the squalls, the drenching, the pouring with sweat, the aching joints, the countless bruises, the “how do we put in a reef again” looks, the shouting over the waves and the wind, the constant dodging of the trip hazards, the crawling on your knees, the hanging on for dear life, the sheer physical effort you have to put into every aspect of an evolution, sail hoist/drop and just getting in and out of your bunk; the starry nights, the blackest of skies, the incredible lightning storms and the biggest swells I’ve ever seen…..All of it has been everything I imagined and more. I’ve loved every moment, with the exception of galley duty, I draw the line there! In fact, tomorrow is likely to be my penultimate galley duty (I live in hope) and guess who my fellow cookie is…..Greg, I shall keep playing on the ‘big fat whale’ comment all day long, haha!
Love and hugs to all xxx