Great balls of fire, it is blog day once again. What a joy and pleasure it is to write to you all once again!
In the 48 hours that has elapsed since our last talk, we have had a few good times! We started with the continuation of light winds but quickly increasing to a boat speed averaging between 5-7 knots which is great from what we have been seeing in the recent viewings.
But as of now, we are cruising between 10-12 knots, and more often than not, holding above 11 knots. This is absolutely awesome and is fantastic progress to our destination as well as a great morale boost as the distance to finish, in comparison, now rapidly drops.
I do want to talk about last night, and the fantastic work our team put in. It was my 0100-0700 watch with the Code 2 (mid weight spinnaker) flying and light and dying winds. It was very difficult helming trying to keep her flying, but the helming consultants of Marc and Stephane made easy work of it. Then it died completely, so we had a water break and suddenly, boom, 60 degrees apparent wind angle with upwards of 16 knots of apparent wind, we were now flying.
However, due to the tight angle we were falling fast so I called for the drop, in turn everyone sprang into action. With a quick brief to remind everyone of the different roles, the Yankee was hoisted, the tack blown, and down came the spinnaker in a style of complete professionalism and grace, straight down the hatch and the staysail was hoisted to prepare us for an upwind setting.
“Let's have some water and pack the kite then,” I exclaimed in joy as I thought, what else could happen. By the time the kite packing had started, with about five minutes delay, we had come to an abrupt halt. Bugger the Code let's get the Windseeker up! So down comes the staysail, up goes the Windseeker (Editor’s note – it was the quickest hoist Angus has seen) and the Yankee dropped straight after. Finally, we hoisted the staysail and immediately dropped it because the wind had then decided to shift right behind us. Though we were absurdly quick with our evolutions we weren’t quite able to hold onto Perseverance but don’t worry Punta will be back!
Why go into the detail of a night watch one may ask? Well, it speaks absolute volumes on our team’s drive to succeed. With everyone leaping into action, this was just a small part of what’s been going on and it makes me so proud to see everyone taking ownership of their responsibilities, as going fast hurts and it seems that everyone understands a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and on Yacht Club Punta del Este there is no weakest link.
Anyway, a group message from the guys, as we are in power saving mode right now. We have limited charger times, so for those wondering why the replies in emails are taking longer, no need to fear. Everyone is okay we just need to conserve a little bit more fuel so be patient with us, the replies will come.
In my last blog I asked whether there were any questions burning a hole in your brains and we have received a few! Wo hooo!
So here we go:
Do we rotate galley duties? Yes, we do! Everyone is paired up with a member of the opposite watch and each day they have a duty one of these duties is Parent (Galley) duty, Being Parent also means on that night you get your own bunk for the whole night and a full night sleep until your next watch the following day at 0700, or if you are the lucky one in the pair, until the afternoon watch! Alongside these duties we have heads, which cleans the heads every watch, the bilges which empties the bilges, navigation who is in charge of doing the log every hour and plotting on the chart every four and so on so forth!
Seeing the head facilities, do you use them or just go over the side? As convenient as it is going over the side it is very dangerous. I can’t remember the exact statistic but it’s a huge number of men that are found at sea have their flies undone! Though the heads are a little cramped, as long as everyone takes responsibility and leaves it a bit cleaner than they found it, it's nota bad experience at all and you get a free workout every time you have to pump the toilet 50 times total each go.
And finally, what have dolphins ever done to you? Very good question! Dolphins have never directly impacted me though I feel if I was to come face to face with one, I’d have something to say. My main issue with them is no matter what we are doing we could be in the middle of sending me up the mast with life in the hands of winch bearers, I guarantee if you put anyone on that winch and a dolphin comes near there will be a colossal echo of DOLPHINNNSSSS and everything just hits the fan. They are so alluring they take the attention out of everyone. I think I’m so angry at them because I often fall at fault to shouting ‘dolphinnsss’ myself, and there’s definitely a hint of jealousy at work when everyone looks at them and not me aha.
And now it’s time to say goodbye so everyone, have a lovely couple of days, please send through some more questions to help me fill the blogs and now I will love you and leave you!
Till another time, love to those at home,
Angus, Nano and the Punta Riders currently riding the hoon train towards destination hoon.