
Match Race Finish is approaching
Tintin
9 days at sea. What more is there to say? Even the log entries are becoming more and more sparse!:
13:00: Rolly
16:00: Gybed
18:00: Gybed
19:42: Crossed Greenwich Meridian
00:00: Good speed
01:00: Dark
03:00: Very nice 🙂
07:00: Fast
08:00: Breakfast
10:00: Getting hot
And there you have it…a day in the life aboard Tintin.
Di spends her time pretty evenly split between helming and cooking (and sleeping, too, I suppose), all of which she is doing magnificently.
Johnny trims the sails, reads his book and looks after the cleaning department.
Ed has also been a star on the helm as well as doing all the foredeck duties expertly.
As for myself, I am still wrestling with why my noon sight of the sun yesterday was so different from the GPS. Now I am more convinced than ever that the GPS is useless. Tomorrow evening will be the true test. Will we find the island or not?…
Umoya
Eventful night again, some squalls that we survived. Only this morning in a sudden squall the second spiny completely ripped. Slowly really looking ffw for land, cold beers and a burger. We found eggs on board though, still in tact so preparing a good brekkies. Currently sailing the asym, and hopefully heading straight to the finish..
Flica
Pushing hard for the finish, running on caffeine and adrenaline
Fryd
With less than 300NM to the island of St. Helena.
Well, as usual Andrew is still fishing with the same results. Zero catch. I told him that the very definition of madness is when you keep doing the same thing over and over expecting different results. Not to mention that I have a feeling that the massive amount of fish tack he is trolling behind the boat may actually slow us down.
However, like Hemmingway’s character in the Old Man and the Sea, he simply refuses to give up. Although even I must admit that it would be pretty cool if he manages to haul a big fish skeleton out of the ocean that we could display in our rig as we enter Jamestown.
The other issue occupying much of our time is what we are having for dinner each day. So yesterday Lars asks me if we are having the nice sausages he found in the fridge for dinner. Having to manage his expectations, I tell him that they are for another day. Tonight, we are having Reindeer for dinner I tell him. Wow, what part? Lars asks me. The balls or the testicles, I tell him. That is why they will be white and quite tender. Ok, Lars says, I am brought up to try everything, but I think I will have just a very small portion, he continues.
So, for dinner I cook chilly spices Swedish fish balls in lobster sauce disguised as Reindeer balls. As expected, the dinner goes down very well with my South African crew!
Tonight, Andrew is cooking, and I do not know what he will do. However, we agreed not to touch the Umoya supplies as our toilet system on Fryd will certainly not cope with the results. Thinking about it, I guess the crew on the Umoya must have turned their whole boat into just a big toilet by now…ugh!
Well, I guess that’s if for now, it is time to change spinnaker…
Magic Dragon
Peter has caught a fish! Although small it was perfectly formed, filleted and fried as part of dinner. We think it was a Yellowtail Snapper, but are not sure….
We can’t believe how close the competition is at the moment. At the front, Flica and Atalanta are dueling constantly. Behind them, Fryd and Tintin are never far apart and our own battle with Umoya has been going on for days – seldom more than 5-10 miles separates two completely different craft! May the best crews prevail and all share a beer soon…
Jane and I are feeling pretty tired at the moment – definitely looking forward to landing in St. Helena. Children are amazing – in good spirits and playing games.
One Eighty Magnus
Ahoy, from the good ship 🚢 Magnus. All is well on board and the winds have turned more favourably for our course. The past few days saw Team Magnus doing night gybes, on board (midnight) sail repairs and sailing our own race. Well done to all teams so far, we’re in the finishing straight, so to speak. Fair winds to all, signing out.
Mwera
All is good on board Club Mwera. The old girl still knows how to send it. Wind has picked up and we’re in for a bumpy ride home with 2-3m, 7s swells coming for all sorts of directions. Feels like we’re in a washing machine with an extra spin cycle. We’re feeling super chilled today and going to reserve some energy for the final stretch home. Lots of love to all back, home wherever you lay your head!
The excitement is building – tomorrow we are due to welcome our 1st to boats. We have arranged ice cold beers for them. The bubbles for the line honours boat is on ice… A have a sneaking suspicion the Race Chairman will have us pacing the dock from early just in case.