What a week of highs and lows, ups and downs, excitement and disappointment.
The leg began with one of the toughest first nights at sea in any round the world race I have competed in. With headwinds up to 40 knots plus and awkward seas it was a very difficult time for all, eating was out of the question and it was all we could do just to keep the boat in one piece and concentrate on going the right way.
After a few days we eventually reached a point where we could hoist spinnakers and as the breeze built it was into the typical Southern Ocean sleigh ride with some fast and exhilarating sailing. The racing was still very intense and so close that in the middle of the night we had a port starboard crossing situation with Groupama. They were on starboard and therefore had right of way, it was our obligation to keep clear and we achieved this by furling the spinnaker and luffing up to cross behind, quite a manoeuvre in the dark!
As the breeze built we were the first to change down to a fractional spinnaker and initially lost a little to the French but then began to overhaul them as our average speeds climbed into the 20s and peaks regularly into the 30s. As the breeze built further and we reefed the mainsail once and then a second time the game changed a little. The sailing transitions from fast and exhilarating to even faster but highly stressful.
It is hard to describe but I will try to paint a picture of a typical four hour watch for me.
I am woken up 40 minutes before I am due on deck, this gives me time to get dressed (by now in the cold taking a good 10 minutes to pile on the five or six layers). Then it is get a bowl of freeze dried from the galley. This sounds simple enough but the boat is lurching and jumping around so much it is difficult to balance let alone hold onto a bowl of food without it upending everywhere. Very cautiously I make my way back to the nav station to discuss the weather, our strategy and goals for the next fiur hours while I'm on deck.
