TRIPLE LINDY – OFFSHORE RACING TEAM

Wednesday managed to get through video covid testing for 12 crew, then boat registration, and finally immigration for Bermuda. It has to be said that the three Bermuda immigration officials were a credit to Bermuda – friendly, cheerful, and efficient. They’re dealing with almost 2000 sailors who aren’t the best at remembering their passport, following process, or being as polite as they could be. Anyway a very successful morning, so in the afternoon with a little breeze in the channel, we got through some more data gathering for various sail combinations. Here we are reefing our big J0 foresail, a furling jib like masthead sail flown from the sprit – a weapon! A grand day out…

The team now assembled in Newport and boat jobs quickly being ticked off. Managed a sail on Sunday to go through the systems, see new sails, and calibrate the instruments. Monday plenty of jobs going through safety equipment, sorting out interior, and generally burning calories going back and forth between container and boat. And to Tuesday and a full day sailing with safety work included. Tomorrow is testing day and dealing with immigration paperwork. We’ve shipped all our shore clothes to Bermuda by freighter on Sunday so are down to our 2 sets of clothes for the race. The washing machine is getting a lot of use this week.

 

We’re almost done with cleaning the boat, sails and ourselves after the race. The shore team will finish up jobs next week and get the boat back in its cradle ready for the next event – Voiles de St. Barts in April.

The crew wives are a bit on edge after hearing that Clementine is now sailing on the boat. Apparently crew have been sleeping with Clementine, speaking of her as bright, tough, and a bit racy.

Who is the mystery Clementine? Well it turns out she is the storm jib staysail.

The race – we performed very well, the boat and sails were faultless, the strategy was solid – just ended up in dying breeze some 30 miles from the finish.

Looks like we placed 8 in class and 21 overall in this high quality field. This edition was one for the big and superfast boats.




Just passing Guadeloupe after dawn – made good gains last night getting through the wind shadow. In good company- racing hard and loving it. Crew well, happy but tired. 170 miles to go.

Today’s fun was spending two hours in Antigua’s largest supermarket shopping for calories. The snacks for 14 crew filled two shopping carts. Will they appreciate the thought that went into selecting the treats, or will the logistics team get endless abuse on the rail for the next few days. We will soon find out!