Living at 45

Well the Panama canal was pretty special and amazing, but is already a
distant memory as we're 24 hours in to the race to Jamaica. With this being
our home port, we REALLY want to win this. So we're pushing on every level.
Dedicated helmsmen, and a 4 hour on/off watch system (as opposed to our
usual 4 hours at night and two 6 hours during the day).

I'm one of the helmsman, and also find myself on the bow often for headsail
changes. The last 24 hours have been a bit of a reawakening and have shown
us how we've been spoilt in the run down to Panama. Running for 12 days
down wind with a spinnaker is a hellufalot more pleasant than beating close
hauled. The boat is heeling up to 45 degrees (30 at a minimum) and bouncing
off the waves as we plow through to Jamaica. Which is making living on
board (getting in your bunk, trying to go to the toilet, or even writing
this email) *very* tricky.

The steady trade winds should give us a nice beam reach, but they are not.
Beating in to the wind is tough going in and of itself, but add to that a
raft of technical problems and things get even harder. Our generator, which
we run about 15 hours a day packed up. This means that we have to use the
engine (in neutral obviously) to charge our batteries. But since it's water
intake is on port side, we can only run the engine (at this heel) on our
starboard tack.

So although we'd like to tack when it's good for our strategy, we are
finding ourselves tacking when all computers start turning off (a sure sign
the batteries are too low). All fun and games.

Even typing this email is hard, so there might not be a lot over the next
couple of days. But the good news is that some early smart tactics have put
us in a favourable position. Now lets just hope the wind veers a bit to
give us a smoother ride!

Podium for Jamaica!

Jamaica crosses the finish line in third!

The final 24 hours were nail biting. We managed to outsail Team Garmin, and gave chase to Henri Lloyd, but in the end they managed to cross the finish line just a mere 2 miles in front of us.

Still delighted with third, and the crew have just had a celebration swim. Not sure how many people can say they've swum in 5,000 meter deep water :-)

My first race done, and one podium in the bag...

Tempting a Squall & Shortened Course for Race 11

Jamaica Lime Green - Sun 4th May 11:50

White Squall

For anyone who's seen the movie "White Squall", the reality of squalls in the tropics (or anywhere for that matter) is far more manageable these days. Ocean going yachts (and racing yachts like our good ship Jamaica) have a pretty good radar system, which is used more for spotting bad weather than other boats (for that you use AIS).

But although we know when a squall is about to hit us, dealing with it is another matter. Ideally you want to have your sails reefed before it hits you (but not too soon or else you lose valuable speed); or be able to do so *quickly* when you have your 10 second warning when the temperature drops drastically.

So when two squalls were in our path yesterday, I found myself 10 feet up the mast, ready to put the first reef in whilst my crew mates each had their own roles in the pit.

Careful What You Wish For

As we stood on standby, the skipper was eyeing up the first squall. It appeared to be passing us by, giving us just a few drops of rain as it went along. Jokingly I threw my head back and roared at the sky "IS THAT ALL YOU GOT?!"; drawing laughter from crew and skipper alike.... careful what you wish for...

Within seconds the sky roared its own thunder back at me and we had our answer... nope, that wasn't all she got... The winds shot up to 40+ knots and horizontal rain drenched us so hard it felt like hail.

The crew changed gears in to overdrive and in no time the first reef was in; but it became clear we needed more. The halyard was dropped further, but by now we were over powered and heading for a broach. If I'd been wearing a tux, I could have done a mast walk a la Alex Thomson.

The main sheet was quickly eased, and once the boat righted itself we got the second reef in. Followed quickly by four of us attacking our Yankee sail and brining that down to de-power the boat further.

And like Keiser Sosee in the Usual Suspects: like *that*... the squall was gone... Leaving us drenched to the bone.

In short: that's how you have a shower on an ocean race... it was all very refreshing :-)

Note from the Clipper Race Committee

The Clipper Race Committee, chaired by Sir Robin, has shortened the course for Race 11 - the PSP Logistics Panama 100 Cup by introducing a new finish line within the Course Instructions. This line is perpendicular to the route and is long enough so that it does not adversely affect any team tactics.

It is currently (at 1900GMT) 100nm ahead of Henri Lloyd. The Race Committee has taken this decision after it was advised of maintenance work that is being undertaken on the Panama Canal locks over the coming weeks, the lighter than expected wind strengths on this section of the race and then need to maintain the overall race schedule.