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Scarlet Oyster - 09 Dec - Big blue is no more ;-( Day 15 on Scarlet



Again apologies for lack of blogs, not sure where the time goes!

Since I last wrote we had a wind hole to negotiate, being further down the track than the rest of your class does have drawbacks it seems, we had 2 choices N or S of the calm, the S optioned looked favourable to us, but those behind would not be able to follow, if we had tried to get N it would have been more distance, and an early park up, but the wind would re-establish quicker. If we could get S far enough it seemed there was no complete park up, but the strong NE wind would take longer to reach us. We chose S, and it was looking quite promising till the wind dropped out earlier than anticipated! The night of the 5th was pretty frustrating with between 2 and 5 knots of wind, we had to sail either almost due S or NW, as in such light winds the boat cannot sail anywhere close to dead downwind, we carried on S. Every position update we seemed to lose more and more ground, plotting where Arabbiata where showed them already reaching the new wind up N! The wind on Friday 6th was kinder than it might have been and we were able to proceed far enough S to get into a steady 10knots, much relief was felt!

Just before midnight the expected NW shift arrived and we gybed, pointing directly towards the finish line, unfortunately in preparing for the gybe, our carbon fibre jockey pole went for a swim... These things do happen, I was able to fabricate a temporary replacement from a pipecot, and some spare blocks. It has worked so well that my replacement jockey pole will be a development of this concept, much more elegant than the old solution!

The wind built over the next 24hrs as hoped, and we started putting distance back on the rest of the class for the first time in a couple of days, the big blue Sydney 60 kite proving to be a very versatile work horse! Sadly the night of the 7th it met its maker when we got caught out by a massive squall, we had been pushing our luck flying a light 180sqm kite in over 25knots, so when the squall hit I guess it should not have been a surprise that it 'lost its head' (quite literally). Unfortunately we then ran over it so could not retrieve it... Biblical rain and 35knots of wind made the clear up quite tricky and we also managed to lose a spinnaker sheet and guy, not a good moment... We now have 2 corners of our brave big kite left, but a healthy lead in the race to remember him by.

The rest of the night was spent under pole out jib, but the 30knots of wind provided by a seemingly unending cloud, kept us trucking along, a bucket on deck recorded approx 6" of rain overnight, next year I may just put a big funnel into the water tank and not bother with a water maker!

Just made up some replacement sheets and guys, so can hoist again when the wind and sea state allow. Not really keen to blow another kite!

All good on board, food has lasted well, can eat on board for another week if needed! Still eating the precooked food from the freezer, no need for tins yet!

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