Temperature is rising.

True to form, the British have both eyes firmly on the weather and we
have now gone to the other extreme of my first leg where the weather
was very wet and freezing, to blazing sunshine and temperatures in the
40s. This presents us with different sorts of problems, the main one
being, keeping our spinakers filled with air as we navigate down the
Mexican coast. We have 3 on board which are flown individually depending
on the wind strength. These bits of cloth that are the size of a tennis
court are very fragile and are prone to damage, on this leg we have
managed to rip the heavyweight in 3 pieces, the middleweight has had to
be repaired twice and the lightweight has also had 2 repairs! Dropping
and raising these monsters keeps us busy and the constant trimming that
is required means that there is always something to do.
Thankfully everyone seems to be keeping their fluids up as dehydration
cannot be ignored, the living accomodation resembles a sauna and some
nerves are becoming a touch frayed, however, we are all collectively
pushing hard to make a big impression on the fleet as we go through our
43rd day at sea without some recovery time.
We are confident of a podium finish in this race and we are really
pushing for the top spot, we are further south than any other vessel and
our course suggests that we are in a great position even though the
clipper figures have us either in 2nd or 3rd position. So keep your
fingers crossed and watch this space!
Day 49 - what a differance a few days can make, as I write this at
02.00hrs we are in our 2nd day of no wind as the rest of the fleet either
extend their lead or catch us up and pass us! The prospect of a podium
finish in this race now looks pretty remote.
we have gone through the 100 degree temperature on deck and we have had
our first casualty of heat exhaustion.
I had the pleasure of being on mother watch later today, this is when two
of the crew have to cook all of the meals for the crew of 19, we measured a
temperature of 44 degrees n the galley, despite drinking 9 litres of fluid I
still could not keep up with the output through the skin!
We are now on Day 53 and the tension on board can be cut with a knife.
We have caught up with the Aussies and the race has been shortened by the
race comittee, so we have a straight drag race of about 100 miles to the new
finish line where anyone of 5 boats could win this race.
We like some of the fleet are currently stuck in a wind hole and we are
doing a massive 1.7 knots!! It's going to be a long and tense night as all
the boats seek some elusive wind that will propel them to the new finish
line and the coverted 10 points.
Watch this space...........