It was "Old man" Mike Morgan and Mike Moore, both round the world crew members and my two watch leaders’ turn for Mother Watch today, so the Warriors have been working under their assistant watch leaders today and throughout the night. I have been spending a lot of time up on deck to offer assistance if required, but so far I have only given extra tips on trimming. Then watch change and gybe followed by peel. That didn't go so well, having not checked the sheets we gybed with the sheets set up for an inside gybe! Usually you gybe an asymmetric spinnaker forward of the tack and luff of the sail, and it flies around the front of the boat. You can do inside gybes where the whole sail has to go between the luff of the sail and the forestay, but they are quite difficult and if you are not ready for it you usually end up wrapping or hour-glassing the kite. We did the latter and had a wine glass that my wife would be proud of(Dawn does like her wine!)
But this was a bit of a blessing in disguise as we killed two birds with one stone and dropped the kite on the deck, hoisted the medium weight spinnaker and carried on towards the Canary Islands!
We now have a speed of around 10 knots and 200 nautical miles to go to the Canaries, then the decision to go through between the islands or to the east will be made!
I think I will have to put the watch leaders on the Mother Watch rota more frequently as some of the food coming out of the galley today is pretty good! We had baked potatoes for lunch and fish pie for dinner, with chocolate angel delight, broken biscuits and cake for pudding, with bread made for breakfast and our bacon sandwiches!
As predicted the wind has been slow today but picked up later this evening with the 15-20 knots we have been hoping for. Unfortunately the 1800UTC schedule downed spirits a little with Wendo and team Da Nang Viet Nam and Diane and team ClipperTelemed+ slipping by. But with our wind looking like it is going to be with us now until the Cape Verde islands and having just gybed on a more south westerly route towards the Canaries, we are hoping that that distance can now be made up and we will be back on the leaders in no time! Especially with Pete and team GREAT Britainand Dan and team Derry~Londonderry~Doire having reported that they are struggling in light winds to make it past the west of the Canary Islands.
We have to remember that we are only a quarter of the way into a very long and tactical race. This is a marathon not a sprint!
Life on board continues as the Warriors begin to become acclimatised to the watch system, there are more people hanging around on their off watches and not rushing straight to bed. The heat as we move ever-further south is taking its toll on some, but by the time we get to Rio all will be more than acclimatised!
I know it is early days, but I grow more disappointed with the lack of wildlife we have seen so far. A number of the boats have ticked off whales, Igor and team Qingdao have been eating fresh squid! I remember when I was last sailing in and around the Canary Islands, the flying fish were in abundance. You were sailing at night and would hear flapping on the deck, only to find hundreds of fish in the scuppers at first light! Not as great eating as the squid I’m sure, but a break from the norm.
Well, here’s waiting for the schedule to come through to see the damage limitation we have managed to do in the last six hours! Until tomorrow. Mission Performance Warriors Out For Now.
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