We had the most beautiful beginning to this race, with six boats being within a few hundred metres of each other, spinnakers up, jostling for positions with a beautiful sunset as the backdrop. Soon enough, the wind increased to 40 knots and changed direction from northerly to south easterly.
This hallmarked the end of our beautiful beginning, as we began crashing upwind, catapulting our new joiners into life on the lean and cheeky bit of the green monster. There is nothing quite like being thrown around a Clipper 70 by the sheer force of waves crashing against the bow, a true Clipper Race baptism of fire. We then proceeded to sail swiftly out of said 40 knots of wind, with some spicy sail changes, all the way down to our current sail plan as we navigated our first wind hole of Race 5: Sta-Lok Endurance Test.
The sail changes and navigation throughout this period have led to a slight split in the fleet, with one pack holding height to the east, and the others going for speed on the western end. We were smack bang in the middle, and now we are in Stealth Mode, I won’t say any more about what that entails for our decision-making over the next day.
Today, the Christmas decorations are going up and the Secret Santa presents are wrapped and ready. Next on the list is creating the order of service for our Christmas Day celebrations. We look forward to radio Christmas carolling with our closest neighbour at the time (get ready to listen to the dulcet tones of the CV28 Non-Ecclesiastical, Royal Philharmonic Choir, a delight one can only dream of to celebrate Christmas).
Today, I am going to begin our first choir practice at happy hour, and can’t decide whether Santa Baby or Merry Christmas everyone should come first on the CV28 Christmas repertoire as a firm alto myself I’m thinking Santa Baby, will keep you all posted.
If we can raise £500 on our UNICEF fund in the next two days, we’ll get a video of the practice sent your way.
Donate on our Just giving page here.
Laura, Dan and the UNICEF Team.