LEARNING A LOT ABOUT THE BOAT...

Video from day 8 onboard Artemis Ocean Racing II from Artemis Ocean Racing on Vimeo.
17th November 2008
POS 21.21.14N 018.50.78W - Wind 15 knots from 26- Boat Speed 14 knots - Heading 12

I have had a pretty busy few days since I last wrote. It has been great on board for most of the time. I am learning a lot about the boat, a lot of it the hard way - trial and error. That makes life exhausting as it involves sail changes, stacking, and manoeuvring.

The night before last, shortly after leaving the Canaries astern, the wind died off as expected. This left a biggish but decreasing sea and 4 knots of wind at times. I had started with 2 reefs, the code 5 gennaker and the staysail. I shook the reefs out (winding the mainsail back up to the top of the mast), furled away and took down the code 5, got the A3 (BIG gennaker) on deck, hoisted it, unfurled it, and the wind filled in and changed direction. So??. After a cup of tea, I then furled the A3, dropped it, got the Genoa on deck hoisted it, unfurled it, and off we went. I then had some of the most amazing sailing imaginable - reaching in flat water, beautiful sunrise at 15 knots!! This was relatively short lived, but very enjoyable - so what next; back to the code 5 and staysail, where I had started! No sleep, sweating literally buckets and no food. In the meantime it's back to square one!! Read full report...