can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

Milanto - Log Day 7 - Things are different



Day 7 Its all a little different.

I've been in sailing races before, many times in fact. Its pretty straight forward really, you look at the course, make a plan dependanton the wind, then change it a few times using your experience and whim, and then during the course of the race you make fine adjustments, as you see who's doing what and where the shifts are.

People expend huge amounts of effort tweaking sheets and halyards, and of course shouting and generally being important and knowledgeable. This Ocean racing, doesn't work like that. You make your plans based on wind predictions days ahead, fine adjustments are simply pretty pointless, well certainly at our level anyway. Your Ellen Macarthur's get benefit from shinning up the mast in the small hours to twist or turn something or other, but for us mere mortals, its as well just to keep finding the right line betwixt wave and wind.

It's really just about us, the boat and what's going on immediately around us. Vale and Keith spend a bit of time looking at the predictions we get every other day, and then we make a course adjustment to compensate once in a while, but for days we point the boat in one direction day and night and sail to maximise what the wind gives us.

It shifts and changes constantly, so we need to make on-going adjustments to make best use of the wind at all times, pointing as close as we can to the direction set. Bearing 255 degrees at the moment since you ask. The course we were heading on over the last few days now looks like having poor winds in a few days time, so we now decided that we need to sail south of this area or at least that's the plan today.

We have no idea where anyone else is, as the ARC system for sending race data seems to have indigestion at the moment and we cant get any shore based data. So our plan is to sail the new course as fast as we can and hope we beatthe wind blockage. Over the last few days we have slowly become accustomed to what it is to sail a boat like Milanto in an Ocean race day and night.

We've learnt as best we can how to anticipate the wave that hits you in the stern, driving you sideways, skidding the boat, which then swerves precariously for a few moments, eliciting yells from the galley or the map table - coffee spilt, toe stubbed.

Some of us are faster learners than others and I think I am getting a reputation as being one of the ones who cause most turbulence down below. Its small adjustments of the wheel that are needed and sometimes those are the toughest to carry out. Too much, and you end up swinging from one side to another in an ever increasing arc of curses and frustration; too little and nothing.

Our American onboard, Josh, on the other hand is a fast learner. Josh is a guy who likes to think he could eat you for breakfast, except this is unlikely as he is a vegetarian. In reality, I think it more likely that he would buy you breakfast and then hang around to check his emails on another table, wondering over now and again to check you have everything you need. An IT entrepreneur from Seattle currently based in London, Josh has mastered things on the boat by sheer determination. So between him and Michael, A Watch is the team to beat.

Today we (A Watch naturally) caught the Milanto first fish for the trip, a 5 kilo Doran. Vale has an array of hooks and lures, we chose one we nicked named Posh Spice, because it made of silicon and is quite clearly out for the kill. Keith despatched said fish with a swift plunge of a knife to sever its spinal cord and then filleted it for our supperlater. Dorada are a beautiful looking fish, all greens and yellows, shimmering in the sun and water. It seems a shame to pull something so wonderful looking out of its environment like that, but its all part of the trip and what is more natural than hoiking out a fish from the sea and then appreciating it to the full for dinner.

We changed time on the boat today. St Lucia is 5 hours behind the UK, and we need to catch that up slowly over the period of our trip. So today was a 25 hour day and sadly A Watch got the extra hour on watch duty. Tonight we have the Grave Yard shift as well. We gybed the boat today so that we are now on a different tack, this is to help us maintain course more easily, but it also means that I am now pressed up against my lee cloth in the bunk instead of the more stable hull. It makes for a pretty uncomfortable half hammock, but I have just had a tip from my fellow Brit crew member Steve as to how to resolve the problem.

I shall investigate and report back.


Previous | Next