27.11.08
Leg Two Day 13
PUMA LEG TWO DAY 13 QFB: received 0734 GMT
I promised to not use the tag line ‘Life at the Extreme’ because it belongs to Volvo and if we all start using it too much it will get abused and not have the same impact.
Forget that. We are living sailing’s ‘Extremes’.
Windy running and reaching for a week, with incessant fire hose to the face on deck was quickly replaced by finesse sailing with the masthead genoa and a lot of heat. Below was aired out finally and the moisture was all but eliminated. I will tell you that the last 24 hours of the windy reaching was pretty bad down below. We had to have all the hatches and vents shut because so much water was coming over the deck. But, outside the sea temperature was about 29 c and the air temperature was not far from that as well. Foul weather gear was miserable to put on but completely necessary and below was a sauna. Yuck. Throw in 11 guys without showers for 10 or so days and you get my drift.
From quite windy and exhilarating sailing, to our second stint with the doldrums. For ‘il mostro’ we were on top of the world as we kept in one piece in the windy stuff and entering the doldrums we had moved up to third and could see second place Ericsson 3 about 3 miles away. Then came the first of many, many bad clouds and torrential rainsqualls with light, circling breeze in them. We watched Ericsson 3 simply sail away.
Later that day we saw a position report that the Dragons simply sailed right by us about 4 miles away and finally on the other side of us Delta Lloyd has sailed by as well. Unreal. I was told this doldrums place could be a killer, but I had no idea it could be this bad. And, believe me, we aren't trying to sail in the bad clouds. Just the opposite! We were in a virtual pinball machine of bad clouds. When we thought we had a good three hour run, the others did better. When we thought we had a bad three hour run (drifting and slatting), we were right. We took one on the chin and its now time to get back off the mat and start swinging again.
The weather reports at this point give us days of light air to go to Cochin.
I know our shore crew, who want to get into fixing the boat, are not going to be pleased to hear this. Looking at the GPS last night during one of our particularly bad times, we noticed that the estimated time of arrival to Cochin - using the speed the boat was going at the time- was Christmas day! Yikes.
But, all aboard reindex up beat. Although we have had a tough doldrums crossing so far, we all know that things can change in a heartbeat. We are counting on it and all on deck are completely in sync with trying to gain every inch possible.
Not too much else exciting to report. Happy Thanksgiving to all back in the States. It will be one of the first times that I can remember not being with my entire family on this day - so hello to all. There should be quite a bit more Turkey available for you today compared with other years.
Ken Read - skipper
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