Monday, 23 April 2012

Staying focussed - 23 April


Last night we got a good kicking from Ben, the skipper. We had light wind all day. In the early evening I was on the helm, I'm not sure who was trimming, (and I'm too polite to say if I was sure) but we dropped to 2 knots boat speed when Derry were doing 4. Ben came up and eased 2 metres on the sheet and asked me to sail more on a beam reach and we increased the speed to 4.5 knots. He was not a happy man. We kept it up all night and have been rewarded with the news that we are up 6th in the race position. The kicking was well justified. It is very easy to get distracted by the lovely warm weather and jolly conversation.

Yesterday was sweltering at lunchtime. Fortunately there are fans over the bunks. Whereas most of us are now in tee shirts and shorts, Shyamala, one of the Singaporean crew is still in jacket, long trousers and boots.

The last watch, 3 - 6 a.m. we had dolphins very close to the boat but couldn't actually see them in the pitch black, just hear the splashes and see the phosphorescence. Later a flying fish landed on the deck. The previous mornings we've had several squid on the deck.

Go Singapore!

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