130nm East of Cape Town
It is all very exiting, frustrating, exhausting, thrilling, physically
painfull and hugely entertaining: we are in close battle with Singapore
now for about 36 hours. They came into sight day before yesterday and we
managed to stay close to each other with us overtaking them slowly but
surely. They were upwind (North) of us trying to keep the speed up and I
don't know what made them do it but they finally gybed and positioned
themselves so badly that we ended up in the best possible place for a
good defense: between them and the finish line. We managed to extend our
lead and after they and then we gybed back they were behind us on our
track. Kat in 't bakkie (sorry, no english translation for this). We
have kept our eyes on them physically and through our radar to make sure
we knew when they gybed, what sails they were carrying etcetera. Somehow
the attention slipped when we hoisted our spinaker and had to sail a
slightly higher course. They disappeared from the horizon and I managed
only after 10 minutes watching the raradr to find their reflection on
the screen. Damn, they sailed lower than us and managed to squeeze out
of our (not so) stranglehold: school boy error. Subsequently they
managed to report wrong positions for the hoursto follow and did not
show up on the radar anymore. Confusion and frustration on our boat:
where are they, are the overtaking? At 6 the real position came in and
it appears they are still south and downwind from us but 9 miles further
from Cape Town. What a relief but we need to stay focussed.
we had a few very close encounter with whales the yesterday. One crossed
our bow 30m ahead of us. When doing 15 knots through the water that is
very close. The second encounter was with a whale that surfaced 15m from
the boat and I was very afraid it might not dive deep enoiugh to evade
our rudder. There is not much you can in these situations which makes it
quite hairy. Besides that I would not want to hit a whale and cause
wounds. We are guests in their universe, after all.
The strong winds we have had the last couple of days were great but also
quite draining. The boat keeps moving violently and the noise from deck
from the moving mast, the creaking running rigging, the waves coming
over, the winches turning, the shouting when in manouvres etc make it
hard to sleep. Moving around the boat takes extra effort and the helming
sessions and wetness all contribute to bodily wear. Small wounds start
infecting because they do not dry out and muscles ache because steering
is far more intense and tough: the pressure on the rudder is bigger, the
reaction peed is higher, your wet life jacket and heavy foulies press
down on your shoulders.
During a lighter spell yesterday a teammate unravelled my matted hair.
It has not seen a shampoo nor a brush since Rio and has only been rinsed
by rain or salt water when waves came over. During our first two days at
sea it could knotted up so badly I did not dare brush it anymore. Then
it got too cold to wash it and then I got to the "it's only so many days
left before we reach Cape Town" stage and I didn't bother anymore. It
sounds awfull but it really isn't that bad. It does not smell (!?!) to
my surprise or maybe my standards have dropped. Anyway a nice shower and
a decent night's sleep would be very welcome now but first we need that
second place on the finish line.
