Leg 6 Race 2.. Storm readying.

13.04.2024

Ring, ring. Ring, ring. International Dateline? Any single someones in Seattle? Slim? Oh well. Potentially in Panama? Perfect!

We’ve just passed by the International Dateline! Another milestone on our long trip, just as we pass halfway; apparently the done thing is to get a golden dragon tattoo, not sure how Mum would react to that though… Crossing the dateline meant we relived the whole date once more, which makes complete sense, until it confuses everyone. People wondering if it changed our arrival dates, shifts, all that nonsense. Crossing the dateline proved to me just how made up a concept time, or our interpretation of time, is. We have moulded it into the most convenient measure for us, and it’s still imperfect. Time on the boat has no bounds other than hours awake and hours asleep, whether it’s kept track of outside of this or not is irrelevant; the question “are we there yet?” Is silly, we are either there or not there, everything else is sleep or get to work; that being said, a good time to decide to change your clothes might be mother watch, but that kind of just appears out of nowhere as well, like a neighbour routinely complaining about loud music, or your cat.

The threat of a union, and concerns of middle management, has been quelled by the implementation of… more middle management! In the absence of an on-by person this leg on Puff watch, so as we can have an extra person available on deck, we all muck in on the below deck jobs (e.g. logs. which weren’t always getting done). To solve the problem, and make certain peoples happy, we have put in place the rotating responsibility of “Union Representative” who will keep track of all jobs done and not done each watch (so that I don’t have to) and then report back at the end whether they have been completed. Flawless. And it has a nice name. Unions…

The sun came out for a few hours, offering some warm relief and an opportunity to dry out foulies, and any other clothes that most definitely were wet. It also offered a window to bring the beach gear out as my budgies briefly blessed the boat, bare and bold in the risk ocean air as they trekked from helm to bow. Good fun, had a personal photographer in Smiley as well so might be making up a little video soon, need the right music though…

There is a low pressure system approaching that stands between us and Seattle. Once we pass by this system it’ll feel like we’re on the final stretch, but we’re going to have to get through it first. Though not the biggest system we’ve seen, we can expect it to punish us just as much as the last, in a different way this time. It’s still changing every weather report but it’s looking as though we are going to be sailing fairly close to the wind for a couple of days, with 4 metre seas, and 30 knots. I think it’s fair to say that the near future will be fairly uncomfortable. The good news is that once we’re past it we are likely to be on a downwind run all the way to Seattle; it’s going to feel like a proper last stretch, bar inevitable wind holes, obviously.

For now we prepare as best we can. I have already patched the guard netting in the few person sized holes that we had, hope my knots hold. I have also managed to swap out on mother watch during the heaviest of the forecasted days so as I might be helming. For now though I’m going to continue resting my shoulder before it hits. It’s gonna be big, it’s gonna be terrible, it’s gonna be fun. North Pacific baby!

Will x