News about the halfway party, the sky and night and messages from the crew to their loved ones.
Monday 30 Nov
Race Day 8
We’ve made it half way! We have been at sea for 8 days now and our lives have become an endless series of watches followed by a maximum of three hours’ sleep. The night watches are tough to get up for but enjoyable once you are there. Last night we started with a gybe, the rest of the night was broken up by helming, baking bread, eating chilli popcorn and getting costumes ready for the half way party! I swear I saw the skipper passing my cabin with a monkey mask on…
No we cannot stop talking about it – the sky scape is phenomenal and thanks to Dave’s SkyWatch app we have been able to identify all the constellations. Orion was laying down and later standing up. The haze on the horizon meant we were not so far able to see the Southern Cross yet, maybe when we get a little further south.
The moon rise was late tonight, we thought the rabbit had eaten it (yes you can see a rabbit in a full moon, just watch out for the fluffy ears). When she arrived she was spectacularly menacing, rising behind a black bellowing cloud, the only cloud in the horizon making it even more special.
The days are now hot with the shade behind the spinnaker the only welcome relief in the afternoons.
More fun has been had with the fishing with three lots of fish being lost to monsters of the deep stealing our catch. So far the score is us two, five to the fish. You can tell who is better at this game.
Kirsty has added to her bruises by venturing up the mast to sort out a confused spinnaker halyard and replace the blown light. Looks like she’ll be going up again as the bulb didn’t even last the day! David is hoping someone else is on “sweating” duty this morning, although he did say Kirsty was the lightest thing he had ever sweated up the mast – “thing” – Dave you need to reflect on your bloke skills!
Today we have the half way party it looks like the crew will be taken over by a motley assortment of pirates, captains, clowns, he men and an assortment of cross dressers. How we will keep racing while prancing around in the heat in costumes will be interesting to say the least.
The first half of the journey has been epic but has gone quickly. The second is likely to go even faster. We dream that in no time we will be in Rodney Bay reflecting on the trip and how sweet the victory over Challenger 1 was…
Happy year and a half birthday to Isa and Toby Tulloch from mama and all the crew of Challenger 3. I miss you and love you very much. Think you will be quite pleased with my newly acquired bread making skills and rope lingo.
Hi Lorraine, hope your first day at school goes well and you had a great time at the concert last night with “the boys”, hopefully speak early next week – David J
Monday 30th … HALFWAY PARTY!!!!!
Its 0620 and the boat is starting to bustle with the sleepy movements of the oncoming crew and the caffeine induced buzz of the off-going watch (us J ) …Today is the halfway fancy dress party, excitement is mounting, finishing touches are being made to costumes and invite posters are up (not that you could escape the party even if you wanted to! It’s a very small island of steel and canvas we inhabit!).
I feel like banter will soon be in full swing after my rude 3am awakening from Jerry and Ricky wearing a scary mask…luckily I was so disorientated the mask didn’t have much of an effect!
DJ Dave has excelled in his playlist yet again this morning, accompanying the rising sun with even more of a feel good vibe…The Pirates of the Caribbean theme tune and The Proms are to feature at the party.
The last few days have seen plenty of action jibing sails with the Crew quizzing and perfecting the efficiency of the manoeuvre each time – Ricky gave my bruises a chance to heal by monkeying up the Spinnaker pole and sorting the sheet out (after posing for a few photos) … only to send me up the mast to fix the steaming light, sort halyards and take some photos from the mast top… more bruises but at least they are in different places!
Steaming light (strictly being used to trim the Spinnaker!) blew again last night… could be the skippers turn today.
Hopefully today or tomorrow our daring crew will monkey themselves up the spinny pole for some photos and exercise… need to start burning off all our amazing meals ready to hit those Caribbean beaches!
The Skipper has been banished to his quarters after the chocolate brownie fire incident and is banned from any caffeine by order of a poster and the Challenger 3 Crew…he has just appeared to confirm this action and point out that the midway party allowance of a beer each and the finish line champagne are also stored in his quarters… oops didn’t think of that one….
Sun is rising, winds are due to increase, the bacon is cooking, the party is beckoning… life is good!
Kirstie Port Watch WL
Challenger 3
If you fancy racing across the Atlantic join us next year on the ARC 2016
