Fuck.
It was a small joke of mine in the early days of this race that I was going
to have to get more creative with my swearing. I kept going to the same
limited set of options every time the boat slammed and I spilled something
or I struggled to move a few feet because the boat was heeled over so far
or my tether was caught under something so I couldn't move or or or.... It
got a bit monotonous, and I started thinking I should branch out. But some
situations, such as this, call for the classics.
We have been retired, and we're motoring up to Sydney. As I write this,
we've been motoring about nine hours. When I woke this morning, we were
almost completely becalmed, no closer to Sydney that we had been the night
before and lucky to make a knot or two in boat speed. The light winds 24
hours earlier had been forecast, but it was supposed to build back up and
stay steady. This wasn't supposed to happen. Now, the forecasts were
telling a different story, with light air for a while. With corporate
events and major maintenance scheduled for Sydney, as well as a view that
this had been a particularly tough, if short, race, the Clipper Race Office
decided to retire the fleet from the back. PSP accepted twelfth place. We
accepted eleventh. Two boats ahead of us were still racing last I heard but
are likely to be retired shortly, if they haven't been already. I think
everyone on board welcomed the decision, with varying levels of annoyance
that it was necessary. Then again, we had talked about using this as a
development race, planning to focus on the next two, so plenty of time to
redeem ourselves.
And personally, I joined a team that had come in last, and with my help,
we've moved up to not-quite-last. So I have that going for me, which is
nice.
Highlight of the day was that I made my own mayonnaise for the first time.
I was on mother duty. I wanted to make a pasta salad, but the boat mayo had
been confiscated by Australian customs in Albany and not replaced. I'd
wanted to try this for a while, and it worked! I got a lot of amazed
comments about the whole idea of home-made mayo, and the salad itself was
very well received.
I have said many times that the food effort on board is out of proportion
to the results, but it's a lot easier when you're motoring. And anyway, if
that game is going to be played, then I'm going to play it to win.
We should get to Sydney around 2am. There will be beers. There will
probably be a night out. There will then be a lot of work around the boat
as well as some corporate events with sponsors, but I'm looking forward to
seeing a lot of friends around all that. Not sure how much of that will
make for interesting blogging, but I'll definitely be back for the next bit
of sailing, the famous Sydney-Hobart Race, starting on Boxing Day.
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