8th Oct
35-40 knots of wind isn’t the best of conditions for a parade of sail.  Still, the sun was shining and lots of people braved the weather to see us off.  It was too windy to fly all our flags, and we paraded by with 2 reefs in the main and a staysail..You’ve possibly already seen it on Clipper’s web site. We slipped lines one yacht at a time, and each left excitedly with their music playing loudly; our’s is Rocking all over the World. It was time to leave, even though we had been warmly welcomed and hosted in Punta del Este. Lots of steak, red wine (Tannat) and beer; plus the odd song or two!

The inshore race was great fun; twelve 70-foot yachts tacking amongst each other like dinghies in a club regatta – no quarter given or asked for, just racing rules :)) It was rather a baptism of fire for the new Leg 2 joiners as we hadn’t had a chance for a training sail due to the winds.  ’Bob’ had a swim and was successfully recovered between the parade of sail and the start as man overboard training is now routine for each race. Andy, our new skipper, hadn’t been on a Clipper 70 for quite a few months since his last period as a training skipper, but that didn’t really show.  We started down the pack, but were in the lead by the time we left the bay and set course  for Cape Town.

It never ceases to amaze me how changeable the sea can be.  Here in the South Atlantic the waves are long and big, around 3 metres in height. The winds stayed at around 35 knots, gusting 40, but was on the beam so we haven’t been on too great an angle.  A LOT of waves and spray over the boat and physically hard work on the helm. The weather eased enough on day 2 to get Madam Fifi up for a while, but she came down when Andy thought he saw a patch fly off. Something like that could easily end in a massive tear as spinnakers are quite fragile. An hour’s searching didn’t find anything so she was packed for re-use – another hour’s work for two of us.

Today has been a massive contrast; calm seas, a gentle 15 knot wind, sunshine and some time nearly on the level. We came across a number of small whales and had a visit from an energetic school of small dolphins. There are loads of birds around which surprises me as some are quite small and fly a lot as opposed to glide.  We’re hopeful for an albatross sighting soon. Pretty much everybody is now fit and over their seasickness. At one stage we were down 6 people, which kept the watches busy, but now we’re up to a full complement. Just as well as the next weather system is due later today bringing more ind and rain. Over a thousand miles sailed on this leg, and were currently in second place . . .

Jeremy xx