We are 24 hours into the race and already we have seen a whole host of different conditions – upwind, downwind, no wind, lots of wind! The atmosphere on the pontoon was one of nervous anticipation, with everybody eager to set sail. The conditions were excellent at the start line with 15 knots of wind from the north west as a Spanish naval ship fired the gun to set us off. It was a spinnaker start and there was little room for manoeuvre as the other yachts in our class jostled to make an early lead. We made good progress through the fleet, soon catching a number of multihulls which had set off before us. But the satisfaction wasn’t to last long as a squall came through forcing us to take down the spinnaker to be replaced with our number 4 jib. It was with this headsail – and with Franz at the helm – that we recorded our top speed so far of 14.8 knots. However, the conditions changed quickly again, with the wind dropping to absolutely nothing at one point. The wind has been changing constantly since then, as have our tactics. So far we have used 2 asymmetric and 1 symmetric spinnaker as well as 2 jibs and a sail which has become known as the “butch reacher”. It is the butch reacher which we have had up since 6am and we are chugging along nicely at an average of 9 knots, aiming just to the west of Cape Verde in the hope of catching the trade winds all the way to St. Lucia!
Everybody is adapting well to the watch system and helping with food and drink. It was pasta Bolognese for dinner last night which was well earned by the crew! The night time sailing gave us all our first glimpse of the milky way as well as frequent shooting stars. At one point we were even visited by some curious dolphins who were lit up by the plankton as they swam by. This morning with everyone on deck for a bacon sandwich for breakfast we were even joined by an enormous turtle! Today is Josh’s birthday and we was greeted with cards from those back home for which he is very grateful. The next birthday on board is Mark’s on 11th December, but hopefully we will be in St. Lucia by then! For people such as Alex, Mark and Catherine, this was their first experience of sailing at night and a fantastic introduction to it. Mikhail has revealed himself as a master spinnaker trimmer and Ingrid has been keeping us all entertained with her stories. Matthias is revealing his inner Steven Spielberg taking film and photos with his GoPro Camera to give everybody at home a taste of life on board Incisor. The Saunders, as ever, are taking good care of the crew and Rich is just glad to be at sea again.
More again tomorrow, farewell for now!