Stories from the Atlantic

Onboard Grey Goose of Rorc, November 28, 2011

«The Monday morning commute on Grey Goose is a little different and easier than most. From deep slumber to helming on deck takes no more than ten minutes and the only traffic to negotiate is the queue at the espresso machine. Thankfully we are now back into trade wind sailing, with spinnakers, shorts and sunshine the order of the day.
«The light winds we have seen over the weekend have slowed progress and we are now expecting to finish 3rd or early hours on 4th December. It is hard to judge who will win the race on corrected time. Probably it will turn out to be a ‘big boat race’ with the 210 foot Hetairos with their crew of 35 now looking like the favourite.
Sea temperatures have warmed to 26C which means we can wear shorts by night and the only bind for crew is our Captain Toby’s ‘millstone’ life jackets. Rightly prudent on safety issues, he seems to have found the heaviest and most capable lifejackets on the market. There is an audible sigh of relief as the lifejackets are quickly discarded when the crew retire down below at the end of the watch.
«We are seeing more flying fish as we head west with several making it onto the deck this morning. Christian was the first to see a three metre shark yesterday. We have only seen three ships in the last week, in fact we have seen more whales. As for dolphins, they have been relatively scarce, only seeing them every other day.
«Apart from the ability to have showers on a yacht race, one of the great things about Grey Goose are the electric winches, that mean to trim the sails it merely requires the push of a button, a big change from the way the boat used to be sailed on short inshore races where we sailed with over twice as many crew and needed four heavyweights from the ‘grinders union’ on the winches most of the time.
«On the down side the winches occasionally need tender loving care. In particular yesterday our starboard primary winch ceased and it took Toby and trimmer Henri Kramer from Hamburg the whole afternoon to fix. They operated on it with surgical efficiency and ended up with cogs and screws splayed right across the cockpit.
«The operation took about three hours and was a success, though they were a tiny bit quiet and sheepish when we noticed they didn’t quite get it right first time. They had left out a tiny pawl and had to re-operate having had the whole winch housing seemingly all back together. We weren’t too cruel on them though, they had just missed out on any sleep on their valuable off watch time.
Newly engaged Nick Houchin was the only crew member to stay in on our big night out for the mid race party. Nick is saving up for his wedding next September and looking forward to getting back to Holly to organize their big day. We are thrilled for them, though we have just one reservation. It is planned for the 8th September, timed to coincide with the Maxi World Championships in Sardinia and Nick doesn’t seem to be getting the point that he needs to change the date. He tells us it’s too late. What are we to do? The only option is to change the venue to the Grand Ballroom of Porto Cervo’s world famous Clipper Bar…!»

Mike Broughton, Navigator onboard "Grey Goose of Rorc", from the Atlantic, November 28, 2011