25DEC
Restaurant's and shops are closed. I don't like Christmas time
It is raining constantly and Thunderstorms are around. Temperature dropped to below 15 degree C. What a difference to yesterday. The weather can chance very quick here.
An idle day. Only a few things still to work on Arctos.
I had a problem to keep my boots dry from the inside. When I'm on the bow and the spray is washing over the deck the water can enter into my boots even with my weather pants on and tight closed legs around my boots. The water still finds a way in. I taped plastic bags around my boots and I fix the bag with an elastic band around my legs. Let's see.
Peter reading my blog
Remembering the last few days
The international crew is meeting for the first time in middle harbor, Sydney.
5 guys from flying fish and 7 other sailors.
In average a very high level of offshore experience.
Getting introduced to Acrtos. A work intensive and wet fun boat. 10 bunks, a big sail compartment and still no room left.
Only a few days training. For most of us the first time on a cutter rigged sailing boat.
Running backstays are new to most of us too.
Problems with a new mainsail. It was fixed after the 2nd day and now it has a nice cut.
24 hour passage in light winds. We are having company from dolphins and later we see some sharks. So nice to know that we are not alone.
Confidence is growing. We learn quickly to
handle the boat in an efficient way. We are smart.
We had to show our storm sails with the boom
tied down to the officials before our 24 hour passage. This was done real
quick. We learn to work with Arctos. I can feel a touch of "melting into Arctos".......I can feel her soul. She is a proud lady.
Head sail goes down after spi was hoisted.
Charles and Henry: Men at work
Interesting news. Mark, a reporter from ABC Television Australia is joining us. He already mounted some cameras on Arctos. I think he also can do live coverage. We are getting famous. Welcome on board Mark.
The headsails
- One staysail (for the baby stay)
- Two storm sails,
- One nr. 5 sail
- One high cut nr. 4
- One nr. 4
- One high cut nr. 3
- One nr. 3
- One nr. 2 (was handed over to the sailmaker to fix the leech line. Since yesterday back on Arctos)
- Big fat mama nr. 1 (Jason named this sail)
- Two symmetric spinnaker
- One asymmetric spinnaker
13 headsails in total. Not bad.
That should be enough sails for the race.
And it means a lot of work for the crew. How many sail chances will we have? My
guess is 60. We should keep a count on that.
We put much effort into stowing the sails nicely into the sail compartment. I wonder what it looks like when we arrive in Hobart.
I don't know if Mark can establish a wifi connection on Arctos. If so, then I'd keep writing during the race. Otherwise you'll hear from me again in Hobart.
We put much effort into stowing the sails nicely into the sail compartment. I wonder what it looks like when we arrive in Hobart.
I don't know if Mark can establish a wifi connection on Arctos. If so, then I'd keep writing during the race. Otherwise you'll hear from me again in Hobart.
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