White Watch - Mother Watch
After enjoying a more peaceful day yesterday with spinnakers only coming
down when desired by the crew, we were in high spirits and spent Monday
curry and quiz night on deck making the most of the evening sun with puzzles
and crosswords. the skipper then bounced up on deck with exciting news; he
had received an email from a competitor Wylde Swan asking if the girl in the
blue dress from the party wanted a date with their second mate in Bermuda.
The plot thickened today as we found four possible blue dress wearers and
that the girl's name was probably Sarah - Sarah was wearing a green dress,
but close enough. Hilarity ensued and we decided that the best option would
be to send a clean shaven Watch Officer Mark in a blue dress instead.
Also today there was a big blowout on the last of our fresh food- breakfast
was home made granola and fruit, for lunch we had tapas with olives, home
made hummus, patatas bravas, home baked pittas, spicy tomato sauce, fried
chorizo and onion. Sophia said it was the best meal she has ever had (on a
boat!). The good food continued with coconuts at happy hour, eventually
accessed with screwdrivers, a hammer and a vice. Dinner topped off with
great food ending in a food challenge when Rosie & Philly finished off the
crumble with Alexa feeding Philly from behind, safe to say Rosie and Alexa
won but Philly had it all over her face.
Whilst in the wind hole, we took great pleasure in showering in salt water.
Showering is something we haven't done in a while, so we enjoyed feeling
clean for once, if a little salty.
A breezy, moon-lit night for White watch means that Rona 2 flew at 13
knots - we are officially out of the wind hole. But she wasn't the only
thing flying; a flying fish jumped on board, quickly thrown back in by the
skipper. He didn't want any stowaways as 19 girls is enough on board!
Red Watch
We are getting lots of really good practice hoisting and dropping spinnakers
as for safety's sake we are checking the spinnaker halyard every twelve
hours. We are all now pros, with the mate having called our drop "textbook"!
Racing across the Atlantic as fast as we are, time is struggling to keep up.
New time zones meant that we were awake long before the sun. To restore
normality - at least as much as possible - we changed the ships clock to
GMT -1.
We have rigged a barber hauler on the spinnaker sheet to stop chaffing on
the main preventer. One would think that it would be uncomfortable with so
much chaffing on board... but all the girls are happy and excited to be
close to our nearest competition in the fleet. Make sure to follow us on the
Yellow Brick tracker!
~Extract from night watch, 20:00 - 00:00~
Sun sets and we enter a non moonlit evening. You can't really see the boat,
it becomes a black silhouette with its only outline being the magnitude of
stars or the fiery phosphorescence which fills the foam the boat leaves as
it slips through the black ocean. The helm is still and set like it is on a
track, with no resistance from the sea. It feels like flying ten foot off
the waves.
After enjoying a more peaceful day yesterday with spinnakers only coming
down when desired by the crew, we were in high spirits and spent Monday
curry and quiz night on deck making the most of the evening sun with puzzles
and crosswords. the skipper then bounced up on deck with exciting news; he
had received an email from a competitor Wylde Swan asking if the girl in the
blue dress from the party wanted a date with their second mate in Bermuda.
The plot thickened today as we found four possible blue dress wearers and
that the girl's name was probably Sarah - Sarah was wearing a green dress,
but close enough. Hilarity ensued and we decided that the best option would
be to send a clean shaven Watch Officer Mark in a blue dress instead.
Also today there was a big blowout on the last of our fresh food- breakfast
was home made granola and fruit, for lunch we had tapas with olives, home
made hummus, patatas bravas, home baked pittas, spicy tomato sauce, fried
chorizo and onion. Sophia said it was the best meal she has ever had (on a
boat!). The good food continued with coconuts at happy hour, eventually
accessed with screwdrivers, a hammer and a vice. Dinner topped off with
great food ending in a food challenge when Rosie & Philly finished off the
crumble with Alexa feeding Philly from behind, safe to say Rosie and Alexa
won but Philly had it all over her face.
Whilst in the wind hole, we took great pleasure in showering in salt water.
Showering is something we haven't done in a while, so we enjoyed feeling
clean for once, if a little salty.
A breezy, moon-lit night for White watch means that Rona 2 flew at 13
knots - we are officially out of the wind hole. But she wasn't the only
thing flying; a flying fish jumped on board, quickly thrown back in by the
skipper. He didn't want any stowaways as 19 girls is enough on board!
Red Watch
We are getting lots of really good practice hoisting and dropping spinnakers
as for safety's sake we are checking the spinnaker halyard every twelve
hours. We are all now pros, with the mate having called our drop "textbook"!
Racing across the Atlantic as fast as we are, time is struggling to keep up.
New time zones meant that we were awake long before the sun. To restore
normality - at least as much as possible - we changed the ships clock to
GMT -1.
We have rigged a barber hauler on the spinnaker sheet to stop chaffing on
the main preventer. One would think that it would be uncomfortable with so
much chaffing on board... but all the girls are happy and excited to be
close to our nearest competition in the fleet. Make sure to follow us on the
Yellow Brick tracker!
~Extract from night watch, 20:00 - 00:00~
Sun sets and we enter a non moonlit evening. You can't really see the boat,
it becomes a black silhouette with its only outline being the magnitude of
stars or the fiery phosphorescence which fills the foam the boat leaves as
it slips through the black ocean. The helm is still and set like it is on a
track, with no resistance from the sea. It feels like flying ten foot off
the waves.
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