The last 24 hours have been VERY slow, proper doldrum sailing. (Dad, like a morning of a 3 rivers except that race was on the surface of the sun instead of Norfolk). Sometimes there has been a puff of wind but very irritatingly it has always been from exactly in front or exactly behind, making it absolutely impossible to go in a decent direction.
This breath of wind of course, only lasts a few moments and then it drops back to a frustrating 3kts again. This morning we tacked so many times trying to make some sort of positive VMG but all we achieved was some very sweaty crew and a very stationary boat.
Our stealth attack was a bit rubbish. Running up to it we’d been going rather nicely. We thought we’d stealth and sneak up on some of our competitors, however the wind had other ideas. As soon as we entered stealth our luck with gentle progress ran out. In the end we just spared ourselves the agony of our terrible course and speed being broadcast for the masses, but maybe kept some people guessing for a short while.
On more fun topics, the game of Cluedo or as we’ve renamed it Crewdo is well underway. For those who don’t know, which is probably most, everyone gets given a name, an object and a location, simply you have to hand said person, the said object in said location. If they accept, they are killed and pass on their location object person to the killer. Aim of the game is to get the most kills in the next four days. Yesterday I was awkwardly handed a teaspoon, I accepted and after a few confused seconds Graham started giggling and I realised I was out. Cat skilfully got Sue W out with Bruce, Vasi was murdered by her own fan and Bob got done by a speaker. Al was murdered by Greg with a life jacket but there’s been a protest with where does the galley end, and the saloon begin? not sure where we’re at with that one. At first, I was a little reluctant on the game as we are racing of course, but with 1.6kts of breeze there’s only so much racing that can be done so this game is a small and welcome distraction from the heat and the frustration of not moving.
Finally, earlier today I heard Tomasz playing frosty the snowman on the speaker, I went to him for a little welfare/sanity check up, and he informed me that it makes it cooler.
The forecast for the next few days looks okay, but better for most other boats then us, so let’s hope we cashed in our bad luck tokens with the stealth and maybe we can keep Washy moving the right way against the odds (●__●)
Bye bye for now, Hannah, Ella, and the Washington, DC Crew.