Wacky Races

Its been another fun day at the wacky race course. Lewis Hamilton 16th on
the grid! Mind you, I am doing just as badly here, having found the largest
wind hole in the North Atlantic or so it seems. After days of light winds,
it finally gave up on me totally all last night I have some wonderful
video footage of the shining moon on a glassy sea. I ended up taking
sails down as the slatting noise was driving me crazy. I went to bed and
got 8 hours good sleep before a light breeze permitted me to just move
with the spinnaker up. Finally a real breeze kicked in and I have had 8
hours of good sailing. Now me and my autopilot had a heart to heart today
and I won. For now at least it is behaving. But you never get to relax
for long out here, as just as I was dropping a reef, the staysail calmly
fluttered down on deck. Now this is my secret weapon against heavy weather
and to lose it is a serious handicap. The sail is the single new one I
had for the race and we renewed the halyard the day before the start as a
precaution! In fact the mast block had decided to die and bits of it were
still attached to the halyard on deck. Not being one of the younger racers,
and not taking to heights too well either, I consciously had not brought
any means to get aloft at sea and unaided, so my next couple of hours were
taken up by ingenuity and bodge it works using spare spinnaker halyards
and pole topping lift to achieve a means of re-hoisting the sail. Have
hope now it works in strong winds.

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