Days 4-10
It’s day 10 and we’ve finally made it to the doldrums and honestly I can’t remember much about the last 10 days (except tropical storm Lorenzo, which I’ll cover in a different post).
A few highlights from the first week of race 2:
Seeing a yellow haze across the horizon caused by winds blowing from the Sahara.
A huge volcano on the island of Fogo south of the canaries. We couldn’t see the island on the horizon, but if you looked up at the clouds, you could see the Volcano poking through. It was surreal.
Taking first place across the scoring gate and working hard as a team to keep Qingdao and Ha Long Bay behind us. Every time we changed helmsman, we checked our distance from Qingdao. I’m not the best helmsman on my watch, but I’m getting better and was able to keep our distance steady.
Keeping an eye out as we sailed past the Canaries for migrant boats coming from Africa.
Hearing the coast guard radio and shipping traffic in different languages. A Quiet clue in the dark of night about where we were.
How the bioluminescent algae looks like fairy dust in our wake at night and the electric jelly fish flashes of light.
Dolphins! Smaller cute ones and larger two-toned ones. At night the larger ones look like torpedos in the water racing past the boat. One day, we had tens of dolphins swimming with the boat. They jump out of the water in pairs. It was absolutely beautiful and they are so fast!
Flying fish jumping into the boat at night and hitting you in the head, back, leg, etc. They stink and their flapping on the deck makes you scream and run away. They are the sea equivalent of a cockroach. Luckily, my teammates are kind enough to pick the poor guys up and throw them back in the water.
How I felt hearing a man overboard (MOB) call from Team Seattle at 3am during our late night watch. I immediately thought of the stress the team was going through and how scared the person must be. I prayed for a quick recovery, knowing that the calm conditions and warm water temp were in their favor. Luckily, 17 min later we heard the person had been recovered and also found out it was their skipper. He’d been helping with a spinnaker drop when it happened. It brought home again the importance of clipping on and even though we sometimes roll our eyes at MOB drills, it’s so important to have that training on auto pilot. Everyone’s biggest fear is hearing someone yell “man overboard”.
Hearing our code 3 spinnaker tear down the middle in the dark of night just minutes after we hoisted it. We were being cautious & switched from the lighter code 2 because winds were increasing. The sail was hoisted perfectly, but then after one gust of wind, wham! - right down the center. We spent the next 72 hours repairing it and switching back and forth from the code 2, which also had some damage. It took us 2 hours to pack the code 2 below deck in such heat that Su nearly fainted. Keeping our sails in good shape is our #1 priority and a big advantage in racing.
That’s it for now, stay tuned for Tropical Revolving Storm Lorenzo!
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