Race 11 Day 2, Mon June 7th
Posted by Della Parsons on Thursday, June 10, 2010
Race 11 Day 2, Mon June 7th
With the whole fleet close and so evenly matched we knew we were in for a tight race. Over night positions changed again. We went from 2nd to 4th but with only 3 miles between 1st and 4th it was really anyone's game. We rounded the first mark and then it was into downwind sailing. The other watch put the medium kite up but the winds picked up suddenly and by the time I got up at 11am to do some blogging before my next watch I was given the news that we had another ripped spinnaker waiting for me in the saloon. Like the lightweight before it, it was in 2 completely separate bits with a rip from the clew, in one bottom corner, going right across to half way up the opposite side tape and a nice long rip from the middle upwards. Again it was suggested it was too big a job to tackle on board and that we should take it to a sail loft in Cape Breton. However that was not an option as far as I was concerned. We had just overtaken Singapore and had one more boat to go to get into the lead. The weather was such that we would almost certainly need the medium weight spinnaker, so after an hour and a half of assessing the damage – which WAS pretty bad, Charlie and I made a start on trying to piece the poorly sail back together again.
By 3am the following morning and having gone through a variety of assistants the majority of the sail was matched up and stuck back together. The good news is that while the hard work has been going on below deck, the crew on both watches have been “on it” the whole time and we have crept into the lead... admittedly only by a few miles but we were certainly in pole position.
With the whole fleet close and so evenly matched we knew we were in for a tight race. Over night positions changed again. We went from 2nd to 4th but with only 3 miles between 1st and 4th it was really anyone's game. We rounded the first mark and then it was into downwind sailing. The other watch put the medium kite up but the winds picked up suddenly and by the time I got up at 11am to do some blogging before my next watch I was given the news that we had another ripped spinnaker waiting for me in the saloon. Like the lightweight before it, it was in 2 completely separate bits with a rip from the clew, in one bottom corner, going right across to half way up the opposite side tape and a nice long rip from the middle upwards. Again it was suggested it was too big a job to tackle on board and that we should take it to a sail loft in Cape Breton. However that was not an option as far as I was concerned. We had just overtaken Singapore and had one more boat to go to get into the lead. The weather was such that we would almost certainly need the medium weight spinnaker, so after an hour and a half of assessing the damage – which WAS pretty bad, Charlie and I made a start on trying to piece the poorly sail back together again.
By 3am the following morning and having gone through a variety of assistants the majority of the sail was matched up and stuck back together. The good news is that while the hard work has been going on below deck, the crew on both watches have been “on it” the whole time and we have crept into the lead... admittedly only by a few miles but we were certainly in pole position.
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