Last night the wind was great and we were enjoying some nice reaching conditions under the A2 and full sail. By the end of Hannah's and my watch the breeze had filled in to an unexpected 20 knots which signaled time to change to the S4 and bring the pole back to get on course. As the wind had filled in quickly we decided to do a bare headed change quickly so as not to risk damaging the new A2. The maneuver went smoothly and the S4 was set in no time without loosing much speed. Hannah was at the helm and as soon as the new sail was set she was surfing up to ten knots. I am happy to be going fast but now she has the top boat speed, I will get another go I am sure.
The night went well with a couple of gybes and playing around with the spin stay sail. Everybody taking it in turns driving and trimming to get the most out of the boat and balancing speed against going in the right direction.
When I woke for my watch at 0900 this morning I was pleased to hear that we are lying in first place in class. This must have been due to the good winds, Dorade's ability to go deep down wind in a blow and the seamless sail changes and good crew work.
Unfortunately since then the wind has died on us again and we are back to sailing on the A1 and trying to seek out the wind. We are struggling to make 4 or 5 knots but we have the light air magician (Greg Stuart) at the helm. In the last half an hour we have gybed three times trying to make the most of the frequent shifts. Chris Busch is on deck with Greg, Hannah is knocking up some Chilly macaroni which smells amazing and the rest of the boys are getting some well earned rest.
We are running 3 watches but after your watch you are on standby for the other watch and I think all of us have been on deck for most of the standby watches as the conditions are challenging and require constant changes.
Hopefully this wind hole we are in at the moment is not just our own and the competitions are in he same stuff. I look forward to the next sched's but we could easily have fallen back again from the lighter boats that do better in the light air.
Ben