Race day has finally arrived, I haven't been offshore racing since the Sydney to Hobart in 2008, but the memories of the reality of it are still there. Just to be clear, offshore racing is no holiday it's hard work, pretty tough and not everyone's cup of tea.
We meet at the dock at 8.30am, race start is 11am for our class but we need to get out earlier for all the formalities before the countdown to the final gun! I arrive with my small bag of essentials, my wet weather gear a bit lighter for the Caribbean than for the Hobart, but essential. Fleece... Just in case, thermals, quick dry shorts, deck shoes etc. wet wipes, sunscreen, deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste.. And head torch for night sailing and tea making, got my new little petzl torch which I love (after all I am a geek and love a gadget).
Andy has picked up the newly repaired spinnaker and we prep the boat and are good to go by 9.30am. Quick crew departure picture and we are on our way. First things first, sail number on the side of the boat so the race committee know who we are (this is only because the mainsail is down, and that shows our numbers normally). Everyone on deck in life jackets another formality, for obvious reasons. In the Caribbean at least if we fall in we won't freeze to death in the water... At least not straight away! Plus this course is pretty close to the islands. I have uploaded a picture of the route.
We are split into two watches of 6 with Andy as skipper floating and grabbing sleep whilst he can. Our watches are organised, I'm with Brian, Jeff, HP, Marcus and Clifton on bow, shifts start at 6pm 3hrs on 3hrs off through the night till 6am then 4hrs on 4hrs off and so on. Life jackets on from 6pm and a tether attaches you to the boat so you don't slide off in the night!
We get our 30min warning from the committee, and the countdown starts with jostling for position. There are about 30+ boats starting with us and the big boats like Leopard starting 30mins later. It's a bit chaotic, but enough distance to avoid any near misses. Upwind start so we are short tacking, we get a great start off the mark ahead of the main competition and are flying up the coast... Quick tacks and lots of activity.
We continue with a good lead through the day as we get to Barbuda, round Nevis, up to Saba, St Barts and up to St Maarteen. We roll into our shifts nicely and it's all going pretty smoothly from a race standpoint... with just one exception, there were are those on the boat who literally had no idea how to use the toilet when an automated flush is taken out of the equation... As a result we all suffer the consequence as the "heads" as they are called and now flooded. When you are racing upwind with the boat heeled over at a 45 degree angle slamming into waves its really not a nice experience to go through, but sadly there isn't much you can do other than live with it for now.
Still hiking out we tuck into our boil in the bag delights for the evening Lamb Hot Pot and rice... Lovely. Again cooking upwind is a challenge, nothing like a quick tack in the middle of serving up!! Have to say the food has improved dramatically over the years. Can't say I will ever forget the middle sea race boil in the bag dinners, think in some ways they are still repeating on me!!! These thankfully are pretty good, and low calorie... It's like being on a diet at about 300 calls per pack.
Next morning as we start the run to Guadaloupe Andy tells us we are in 2nd place, everyone is keen to hold the lead so we roll off shifts and all get stuck in at the rail hiking out... It's amazing how much time difference this can get you. Another day passes and into the night we are truly racing and keeping an eye on the competition. Next morning about 8am we hit Gaudeloupe... And right then we hit a wind hole and come to a grinding halt. Practically going backwards, we sit desperately looking for some lift or wind around us, any boats moving. About a couple of hours of doing about 0.5knots Marcus spots a problem, a tear in the mainsail... Quick smart we need to fix it, bad enough we aren't going anywhere but without a main we have no chance!
We get the sail down on deck, start the repairs, sadly before we finish we start to pick up some wind. Sailing on just a jib, genoa or foresail (in sailing we have a few different words for the same thing, confusing is an understatement if you haven't done this before) we do what we can but at this stage we have lost about 5hrs, whilst others who went further inshore managed to keep sailing... It's all tactics! Finally the main is up and we are trying as hard as possible to gain back as much time as we can, if we have any chance of gaining time we need to get on the rail so it's looking like no sleep!!!
Round Gaudaloupe finally, heading back to Barbuda and onto Redonda before charging for the finish line upwind again!!!! Sadly the finish line is a bit of a mystery to find, not uncommon a problem but a pain in the neck, losing more time we could do without. Finally it's spotted and we are done, we finish on Thursday at 00.03.317 no idea of our position but glad to be done.
It's been a real challenge, dehydrated, tired, lacking sleep, bruised, we arrive on the dock and are greeted with a case of beer and photographer from RORC. A quick pack up of sails, clean of the deck and it's time to go for a well earned drink! During this race there have been some actual tears shed as some didn't really know what had hit them, a few strange occurrences and a very wet boat!
One memory would be whilst I was cooking up boil in the bag chilli we hit a massive wave... I know this because a hatch was accidentally left open that came into the galley and I had a bit of an unexpected shower..! Another, which will teach me to lie down... I was in my full foul weather gear, cold, and tired... Lay back for a minute the only part of me uncovered was my face peeping out of my waterproof jacket hood and just as I do this a big wave rolls over the deck right into my face... Seeping all down into my clothes beneath... Bugger!
I did also learn about a great app... Stellarium, sadly not available in the UK. You can take a picture of the sky and it will tell you what you see and where you are, and other cool stuff for star gazing. One of the things you see most is shooting stars on night sailing, and phosphorescence or luminous plankton as the boat sails through the water at night when the moon has set. We saw dolphins too on our trip one of the highlights of being becalmed for 5hrs!!
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