28.12.2007
Life goes on aboard Temenos II
Aboard Temenos II, the sailing conditions over the past few hours, which appear
to be idyllic in the photos sent from the boat today, show no sign of the
imminent arrival of a front, and yet that is exactly what is due to kick in
before the day is out. The skies will darken and the wind will fill in again to
over 30 knots for the two co-skippers of Temenos II.
In the meantime Michèle has been making the most of this great day to spend time
at the chart table and send us her latest news of life onboard.
"Today, Dom opted to take over from my night watch with a little music box
received for Christmas, which plays "We wish you a merry Christmas". I know,
Christmas is well and truly over but still, it makes a pleasant change to be
woken up by music! It was almost nice to open my eyes, but it’s definitely still
not pleasant to poke your nose outside this magic duvet filled with warm
feathers stolen from I don’t know what kind of bird… an albatross perhaps?
At sea we’re woken about 4 or 5 times a day, sometimes even more according to
the rhythm of the watches, so it's nice to be able to show some originality. All
of a sudden I find myself wondering how the others do it. I can’t imagine them
laying a music box on the 'pillow' of their co-skipper, unless… these
double-handed races must surely have their share of surprises.
In any case, this morning Dom set the bar very high, so I’ll really have to rack
my brains to think of something to rival this... I'll be sure to keep you up to
date with this 'race within a race'!!!
Of course we’ve heard about Hugo Boss’ 48 hour pit-stop. It’s a real shame for
them as it's always annoying to have to stop for technical reasons. We knew
something was up, but that’s the way our sport goes...
The wind was rather light last night and Temenos II is continuing its course
towards New Zealand on starboard tack. We’re continuing to get a bit of S’ly
into our easting in the hope that we’ll avoid this big zone of high pressure as
best we can. It mowed down Mutua Madrilena yesterday, and is literally homing
down on as it virtually takes over the whole zone. Our focus is on fleeing right
now!
We’ve picked up an extra crew member aboard; in fact it's more of a albatross
scarer, and indeed there’s not a bird in the sky over Temenos II. Though it
doesn’t help us much with the manoeuvres, our guest does do a great job drying
off our foulies, and above all else it has given us a real laugh aboard this
morning!
On today’s programme is another gybe. It would be funny to count the number of
manœuvres aboard our boats. I wonder how many gybes we've made since the start,
but one thing for sure is that we're well broken in now. This routine process
doesn’t affect our concentration in the slightest though, since these manoeuvres
reindex tricky and we have to constantly be on our guard.
The water is at 11°, not warm enough to take a dip in yet but it may be an
opportunity to take a little shower? It’s incredible to see the ways the human
body adapts. We've got so used to the cold that the 16° reigning down below
makes us hot!
The seas have calmed down and the boat is making headway by itself. It's happy
and so are we!
Hasta luego !
Michèle, Dominique and Temenos II waiting for the next front"
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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