It’s a wrap

February 25, 20222022 - RORC Caribbean 600

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.

Hot, Humid and Hauling

February 23, 20222022 - RORC Caribbean 600

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.

A yacht crew sails on its stomach

February 21, 20222022 - RORC Caribbean 600

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!

Almost ready for the start

February 20, 20222022 - RORC Caribbean 600

And we’re ready for the start on Monday. Well almost. Just the small matter of sorting out the freeze dried food (yum), and the fruit & snacks for 14 crew for 3 days(ish).

Last time we did this race we ran low on food, so might pack an extra bar of chocolate just to be safe.

Training has followed on from the 8 days we had in October, and has gone very well.

And driving back to the harbour this afternoon surfing at 18 knots under a big spinnaker was great fun.

Photo credit Mags Hudgell – https://gallery.rorc.org/index.php?/category/1041

Trade wind training update

October 26, 20212022 - RORC Caribbean 600

Well after 4 days of training we’re still on the learning curve, very focussed on driving the boat to its theoretical speed (targets), and it’s not easy. The data collection team is analysing our performance for the evening debrief – not intimidating at all. Life jackets all tested last night, and the boat tuning each day is delivering results. We have such great knowledge and experience on the boat, we’re lucky as a team to learn from such great sailors. So ready for the evening feedback session now, hopefully no one noticed my screw ups today…