Journal, Wednesday 11/26

“Dawn finds us on course, more often than not making about as good VMG [“Velocity Made Good - speed directly down wind] as we could make with the spinnaker in the 20-22 knots of breeze and big, confused chop we’re sailing in. Several times during the day we consider switching to a kite, but always manage to rationalize sticking with our poled out jib.

“Life on board is starting to get into its own rhythm. The watch system devised by Tom for our seven man crew has three men on watch and four off at all times. The staggered schedule for each of us it three hours on, three hours off, then 3 on, then 4 off, then 3 on, then 5 off. This repeats every 21 hours, in which time we have nine hours on watch and twelve off. It quickly becomes the ‘Eight days a week’ watch system, with eight cycles every seven days. I make up a spread sheet with a colored graphic representation of each crewmember’s schedule of time on and time off. Despite its regularity, the watch schedule is not so natural that we remember it, so the spreadsheet becomes a popular tool.

“We start doing more housekeeping chores and conversing more about topics not directly related to sailing the boat. Steering with the winged out jib in daylight is easy. We generally rotate helmsmen every hour. The other two watch-keepers are designated ‘trimmer’ and ‘grinder’ – the trimmer holding and adjusting the spinnaker sheet and the grinder grinding the winch holding the spinnaker sheet when directed by the trimmer to do so. Normally, the trimmers job is the most physically demanding, but with the power winches, this job consists of pushing a button when grinding is required, so this job becomes ‘button man’.

“With no chute up, the trimmer and button man have nothing to do but occasional coach the helmsman. We have a couple of rules of etiquette: one is don’t talk to the helmsman, and the other - for the trimmer – is ‘ABE’ – Always Be Easing. Of course, not talking to the helmsman doesn’t include coaching; rather it is a reminder to avoid distracting him from steering, far and away the most challenging job on board and the one most important to our getting to St Lucia in a hurry.

“Every yacht in the race is required to report their noon position daily. This can be done be single sideband over the ARC radio net, by e-mail, or, as in our case, for boats with Inmarsat C, automatic polling of GPS fix. These positions are then posted on the ARC website. Jody, Tom’s wife, then e-mails us the positions of the boats in whom we have a competitive interest. In today’s fixing we find ourselves 60 miles ahead of Roxy, so out poled out jib rig has not hurt us too badly, so far. By 16:30 we have come 595 miles…”