Luckily no serious damage has been detected and since our encounter with
the whale's tail we only slowed down during the night. At first light
and after losing some miles to the competition :-( we put the spinaker
back up for a cath up race to get some of the points at the scoring
gate. All looked pretty grim for some time with us in 4th place for the
gate which would mean zero points for TF again but... 30 minutes ago we
crossed the line in 2nd place : so finally we have scored some gate
points. Two to be exact.
The course we are sailing is quite demanding on the driver. We have a
poled out headsail and have been pushing against a strong current which
creates short choppy waves. The result is that the boat does not start
to glide and surf when the pressure in the sasils increases and it
feels like a tonne of bricks in a tumble dryer. After a series of
driving sessions of 3 and a half hours in total I was absolutely
exhausted and frustrated. It would be so nice to be sailing a big
Cracklin' Rosie (light, well powered and responsive) instead of the
school bus!
Anyway, the two points are a good morale booster despite the fact that
morale on board is actually very good. This team is special and I am
very glad that I am part of it. I am curious to find out how our new
skipper is going to fit in and contribute. Sad to see our current one
leave. Despite his sometimes very foul moods he is a great sailor and we
all have the highest regard for his way of strategising and plotting and
his ability to make this boat go fast and drive our team.
In case you wonder why there are so many typing errors: typing on a
heeling and in this case rolling boat and in the dark is quite
difficult. It is now a quarter to one in the night and I am going to
have some sleep for thje next 2.5 hours so this is my rant for today. Oh
and we are sailing in warm weather with a bit of rain, so all these
stories about the Southern Ocean being cold are very one sided.
Cheerio!
