We are already 3 days at sea and again this leg the first days were
tough. The start in Table bay was a fantastic experience which started
with a salute to Bertie Reed when leaving the Waterfront. Bertie was a
legendary South African sailor and his buste was revealed upon our
departure. Then in the leeway of the Table Mountain we had a formation
sail in gorgeous sunshine and surrounded by playfull seals and yachts nd
spectator boats. Then it was time for the start. The start was in the
front of the CApe flats and there was no leeway from Table mountain. We
had 20 knots of breeze. We had a reefed mainsail and hoisted our yankee
a minute before the start. I was on bow. My first race as bow and what a
baptisme of fire. We rounded the top mark as first boat and managed to
scare Jamaica off, who were inside us but didn't think they could make
the mark. Great close quarters sailing and quite spectacular in the
windy conditions. We rounded two more marks and just after the last mark
we were in the leeway of Table mountain again. The wind dropped
dramattically from 24 and we changed to yankee 1. Australia in the
mean time had pulled up beside us. Then the wind dropped completely so
all headsails went down and the windseeker came up (that was sailchange
2). When we were doing thjis we managed to be so quick that when the
wind picked up slightly we pulled away fast from Australia. We quickly
changed to a lightweight spinaker and picked up enough speed to
pull away further and further. In the distance however the end of
the leeway of table mountain was looming and before we hit the
funneling effect we had to change back to windseeker because the
wind had changed direction and then we made the amazing swap from
windseeker to yankee 3 (our smallest headsail). This was just in
time and 3.5 hours after the start. My first race as bow was a
baptoisme of fire with 5 sailchanges! It was great fun. I had however
not realised what drama s unfolded before the start or on the first
beat. Two boats went back to the marina for extensive repairs and are
now suffering days of delay...
