Still fighting jet lag but not cold weather so that is a win. We are wide awake raring to go at 0500 and by 1500 we are done. Oh well, hit mid 20s yesterday, very nice, except in the Lindy container which was like Barbie’s Easy Bake Oven. The dockyard where we are moored is a long fjord dug out by the Brits way back when… correction, the Brits had it organized to be dug out by some no doubt underpaid minions or other colonials. Strangely though the wind does come through occasionally. Our dock mates are few but good for us, Wild Oats XI, Beau Geste, etc. These big boys are actually racing today in a one shot race. The pics on TV this morning were awesome. But yesterday was all about seeing where we were in terms of race preps and what needs doing. Our host dockyard manager Dave (Google David Kellett sailor) had all organized in terms of safety and most of the measurement. Thanks to Jay the Lindy systems are working well although we lose satellite coverage in the bottom of our gorge. The boat had been stripped and all neatly placed in our container. In less than 2 hours, Joe and I managed to destroy this organization and the Lindy returned to the state most of us know her to be in prior to racing, good God!
By 1500 we had managed to slow our work pace to useless but not before we dropped a pack of battens in to the drink. A diver was called but he looked at the plan, the lack of visibility and didn’t even attempt it. But, it looks like they may just be spares or spares of spares. You know the Lindy inventory. Then we managed to almost finish the leeboard re-arrangement in the princess cabin and started loading stuff to the boat.
Then off for a beer run then a few groceries a swim, a cleanse and then test prep for the radio exam.
So, here we are at the start of Wednesday and there are heat wave warnings. It will hit an easy 35C today so our plans to load sails may have to wait unless we can find the same labour that built the dockyard and doesn’t mind frying in the sun. So, off to our exam then dodging the sun will be the plan.
And lastly but not leastly, we have had several discussions with sailors about the SH Race. Our rigger told us about his $50K half hour adventure. The short version is that the navigator told the driver (never his fault) that a buster was coming and at the first inkling of a spin collapse that they should change gears to windward. The first inkling was when the spin inverted back through the rig then spun them out. As they tried to get the #4 up, a 3DL, it split into two pieces. Meanwhile they lost control of the kite and it launched out of the boat and tore out the sheets leaving a very expensive flag flying at the top of the rig. 20 minutes later they cut it free and waved goodbye but not before they wiped out a few more times, over-stressed the steering cable and lost control of that too. This boat was one of the 30% or so that didn’t make it past day 1 of the race.
These ‘southerly busters’ come fast and almost always and are full-on Novi spectaculars. They talk about dropping the kite and going bare-headed for sail changes in survival mode. We have all been through line squalls but these ones seem above and beyond the usual. Plus there is the cold water L The advice we are hearing says that ‘you need to stay in the race, job #1’ and ‘change gears early, don’t wait until the pointy-enders start whining cause nobody needs to hear that’.
All for now, already have boob smiles forming… melting, melting…..
View from our deck…
Wild Oats XI… Look them up on YouTube. They needed to move the mast aft because when they hit 30 knots boat speed the nose would dive so they CUT the stern off by several feet and tacked it on the bow… Goes quicker now L They headed out today for a race and had 24 crew. Good God!