The start in Rio was a slight disappointment: low clouds and rain made
for a less spectacular or say boring departure from Rio. We could just
as well have left in the night instead of 3 in the afternoon. The
regular formation sail had to do without Team Finland as our gascable
broke and it was being fixed by the technician who came on board by rib
and had teh thing fixed before the start. The start was delayed several
times due to changes in the wind direction. These changes were
accompanied by lower clouds and the sugarloaf was the last bit of
scenery hidden from us. We started and raced around the loaf towards
Copacabana beach and then around a mark out to sea. After the wind that
came with the rain in went quiet and we got slightly stuck under the
steep walls of the sugarloaf. Eventually we managed to pass the last
mark as 7th as we headed out to sea. After a quiet start the wind soon
picked up and there was no way of gently getting accustomed to being at
sea again: force 5 on the nose and proper steep waves to bash into. Our
sealegs had vanished despite all teh caiparinha's and the restless
berth. Half the crew remembered seasicknes from their training sessions
and I wasn't 100% either (no vomitting tthankfully but slightly
selfconcience). This was not really a problem because with so many out
of action there was plenty of distraction. Changing headsails in the
dark was a nice one. It took 4 people to take the sail down and three to
put the new one up on the forestay. I was airborne several times and
luckily managed to land safely in the soft sails as opposed to the hard
deck. Beginners luck? The amount of water coming over was also very
impressive. We have not yet been washed across the deck but were getting
close. In case you are worried now: we are clipped on and wearing life
jackets. Quite an experience and very tiring. Because of teh lck of
manpower the watches were twice as long and the breaks half as short.
Maye that led to the fact that when the weather calmed down to almost no
wind at all and we were experiencing the doldrums all over, I was
feeling a bit low. Lack of energy and spirit were the main problems.
Maybe a bit of a dip in the immune system. I am fighting a sun induced
cold sore (koortslip) now for more than 10 days and the fact that it
keeps coming back and is rather painfull does not make me ver happy.
And... we got parked up in a windhole once on my watch and that is not
helping either. The next day hoever we learnt that our biggest
competitor got stuck even worse than us did make me feel slightly better
;-) They had been sailing on our tail for almost a day and got closer
and closer which was quite exiting. Then we decided to break away an put
a kite up and head south. They followed us for a couple of hours and in
a windshift decided to drop teh kite and move further North. We lost
them in a raincloud which left us without wind, but them without even
less wind as we found out later.
The ocean is again a beautifull place even without the expected big
waves and strong westerly breeze. Two birds keep us company and show up
regularly. It is great to see them skim the tops of waves and dip into
the wave valleys to come up into sight after a few seconds. It must be
great to be one of them for a few hours...
