Position at 2000 on Friday 24th July 2009: 42.56N, 52.21W
Day 5 of this Atlantic challenge brought meaning to the word challenging. The wind which seems to have been absent over the past few days came today all at once bringing force 6 and 7 winds and some seriously rough conditions for all of the crew particularly blue watch who had mother watch duties.
Although speed was hugely increased with the boat reaching speeds of up to 11 knots, the heel and boat motion made life uncomfortable for crew. The boat flew along today at 45 degrees and crashed head first into the massive choppy Atlantic waves, an experience for everyone. The crew were all affected in different ways, some began their first round of vomiting while others such as Kai and Steve decided to go wave hunting on the foredeck subsequently having their life jackets explode into action.
Red watches efforts today must also be recognized as well. The one hour long head sail change of the No.1 Genoa to the No.1 Yankee at 01:30 was a test that pushed everyone to their limits. Bryn, Kai, Dom and Matt had an intense disco as their man over board beacons activated due to the sizeable series of waves during the change over. 20 knots of wind meant that they lost the Genoa to the ocean four times before they were able to heave it aboard. Not to be forgotten was the swimming lessons Bryn and Matt received during their visit to the bow in the morning watch to move sails as ballast. 4ft water surges engulfed them as they clung to the unsecured sails to insure they were not lost over the side. I think we all learnt the true importance of being latched on today.
Breakfast for obvious reasons proved a real struggle and there were few takers. The rapid decline of fresh food on board led to the breakfast consisting of tinned rubber sausage type things and 'smash' potato cakes. Gourmet or what!!
After breakfast with the roughening weather Toyin showed everyone his skill in recycling his breakfast whilst loitering on top of the coach house roof.
Julian and lee were today joined in their raving exploits by the bilge flooding alarm going off all day. The flooding of the forepeaks as wave after wave poured though vents and left open windows didn't aid the problem what so ever. However blue watch once again came to the rescue, manually pumping bilge water from bilge to bilge and eventually out into the Atlantic. The epic pumping session continued all day and led to mother watch member after mother watch member make the commute to the cockpit to joining T-man in the newly set up vomiting league.
We were all delighted to hear on the daily radio schedule we had retained 1st in class.
'Happy hour' was made even more special with an on board birthday. Ben is 18 today and because of this, the regular happy hour treats of beer and nibbles were joined by a beautiful chocolate cake for Ben's 18th , and of course the singing of happy birthday. The skipper even hove to for 10 minutes so that the cake could be cut, mood was also further lightened with more crew banter and Tom's revelations the 'badgers don't lay eggs!!' during an egg based discussion.
Today ended on a high with a superb dinner of spaghetti bolognaise thanks to the ever ready Johnny and a rapid but funny decline in Simons mental state. The time zone also changed today indicating our progression across this vast ocean.
Liam Fullbrook - Blue watch
Matt O'Connell - Red watch
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