Telegraph Cove
The start from Hardwicke Island was in light wind and a current pushing boats towards the line. As a result, start one was a general recall as too many were over early. As time counted down for the second attempt, with one minute to go Skipper called for a headsail change. Never failing to meet a challenge, Leon pulled it off brilliantly with 5 seconds to spare. Again boats were over early, but they issued individual recalls and the race was on. We found a clear lane and pulled off one of the better starts .
Wind and current for most of the leg were about the same as yesterday – 15 to 20 knots on the nose.
One the previous evening Skipper and Rudy had worked out a strategy for the leg taking into account their best guess as to how the various hills and channels would influence the wind direction. They identified a number of waypoints that Felix entered into the GPS. Skipper followed this general strategy (with minor amendments for local conditions) and at the end was satisfied that we had done the best we could have done given that again there was more than optimum wind and chop for the boat.
We lost count of the number of times we changed headsails or reefed the mainsail. At the dock the crew of a boat that had followed us for much of the leg teased us saying “Here they go again” whenever we made a change.To each his own!
Today’s result: a disappointing 11th puts us one point out of the lead behind Tryst.
Dave
