Race 3: Punta del Este, Uruguay to Cape Town, South Africa

Life on board

Battered, bruised but not beaten.

We did not do as well as we had hoped coming 9th after playing our joker. It seemed to be a litany of small things not working out one after the other as well as quite a bit of illness amongst the crew. At times when the weather was rotten this consequently affected our spirits. But a glimpse of a clear sky, a burst of wind, a morning of sunshine, and we reignited our team sprint. 

Lessons learnt

During this race, the conditions faced varied dramatically day to day as well as throughout the day. It was not uncommon to put in and shake out multiple reef’s day and night. I also learnt that reefs could be applied in light winds to optimise wind flow to a spinnaker. I worked in the pit for most of the reef evolutions my watch managed, so I became familiar with the stages and timing. One thing that made it vastly easier was the fleck labelling system Marlow Ropes has used for our three reefing lines. All reef lines are black. What differentiates them are how many fleck lines each casing has. Reef 1 has a single fleck line running through it, reef 2 has two fleck lines, and reef 3 has three fleck lines. This saves immense time when trying to quickly put in or shake out a reef as it reduces the risk of error.

Sustainability

If you cannot avoid purchasing an item, the goal is to recycle it to extend its life to prevent the need for purchasing something new. This prevents using unnecessary materials and resources. Recycling items on board PSP Logistics is seen every day. For example, some departing crew hand down or share equipment and clothing at the end of a race to new and ongoing crew. And our skipper will present an old piece of Dyneema ® or rope and ask what other use we can find for it (strops, anti-chaffing, sail ties etc). An old rope can turn a new trick.