| Sleepless race |
| Monday, 07 February 2005 |
My arms feel like jelly. I'm facing aft grinding literally head to head with another member of the crew. There's not much left and sometimes it feels like I am just hanging on to the handles. I try and think about something else. Looking at the phosphorescent wake streaming out the back it seems like we are simply using the grinders to power the boat along. The human engine. I suppose it's not far from the truth.
The first day and a half has been hard work on the 'pumps' (two man coffee grinders) with sail change after sail change. Decisions aren't made based on how tired we are but on what is needed. We've needed a lot of decisions as we negotiated the numerous obstacles on the way out of the Gulf. Despite all this the sailing has been great and all the manouvers have really helped the crew get re/acquainted with this fantastic boat. The temperature is perfect to the degree by night and warm as you would expect by day.
Although our crew is extremely experienced at this game there is still a settling in phase that needs to be gone through whereby the experience can be combined and then refined into a system of procedures. The start was pretty cool and it was great to see four of these craft lining up to play on the course for which they were intended. The long haul stuff. It was a shame that Cheyenne had a reef in as it was maybe the one good chance to see these boats racing evenly and alongside.
As expected of the upwind,12-14 knot start, the big tri was gaining some height on the rest of the fleet. Although we led across the line we were a lot closer when we tacked across onto starboard. Geronimo slipped across in front by a boat length or two, and then proceeded to tack right on top of us which may have worked if they had of got their canting rig sorted out at the same time. They were left going upwind with the rig hanging off to leeward and hence no sheet tension on the headsail and we quickly slipped by leaving them no option but to tack back. Around the first mark we changed to a reaching sail and quickly began to pull out some more as night settled in. Geronimo wasn't backing off and kept coming at us. Her masthead strobe light was a clear indicator and was watched intently as conditions began to build. Reefs were dropped in and headsails constantly changed as we surfed down hill heading for the exit. With Geronimo three miles directly behind we hit something with the port rudder which caused concern and the decision was made to drop the headsails, turn the boat head to wind and reverse it for a bit to help the offending object to float free of the rudder. During this manouever Geronimo went by only a couple of hundred meters away doing 25+ knots no doubt watching with interest. The object turned out to be a shark of some sort whose number had come up. We were quickly back up to speed and off after Geronimo who was now well ahead. With winds peaking at 40 knots it didn't take long to reach the Straits of Hormutz where... we promptly parked up.
As morning broke we proceeded once more up through our sail inventory in an effort to break free. Large sails appeared around us at various bearings all trapped in the same 'honey'. The weather had levelled the playing field and now we were all struggling to break free. With boatspeeds dropping down to less than 2 knots, the usual game of ideas began. Cheyenne had rejoined the fray and was only a mile or two back. From a distance all you can see is this enormous roached sail and a bow. She eventually tacked off and headed east whilst Geronimo stayed inside of us. We eventually got the wind around 1000GMT and took off once more with Geronimo in pursuit. We prepared to change to the medium gennaker but she wouldn't unfurl at the top so had to be dropped again. There was a problem with the top swivel unit that allows the sail to furl in and out. It was quickly brought back to the cockpit and fully pulled apart. The problem was spotted as being an incorrect assembly during the refit and she was pieced back together. All this took time and Geronimo slipped inside us once more as the breeze lightened again. We believe that she gybed to head more offshore whilst we held onto our course. It feels good at the moment but we are eager to hear where they are. The wind has swung onto the nose for now so it has been a case of more headsail changes. Everyone is dead tired but conditions are improving which should allow us to all catch up on the sleep we have missed out on in the hectic past few weeks. We must fuel the human engine as much as possible. Lots of food and water as our bodies begin to harden up to the rigours of sailing one of these big, powerful boats. I think that everything that we eat will be converted straight into muscle and most of that will be around the shoulders.
It's a clear, moonless night with incredible phosphorescence in the water. 'Stars above and stars below' commented Brian. Happy days... for now.
Cheers, Paul.
www.maxicatdoha.com
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