Day Four - The Start

Rona blog day 4 – by Red Watch

 

We had a nice early day after a fun filled night of anchor watch, which involved checking the same three lights every fifteen minutes all night. Red Watch, however, brought the spirit back to the famished crew with a tasty and hearty breakfast of Spanish Omelettes and Porridge, and all round great pre-race meal. Breakfast devoured, we flew to the start line for the first day of the race.

Upon reaching the starting line, the crew was met with the sight of ninety ships, including Square Rigs and Racing Yachts, all making ready for the race start. The starting sequence began with the Square Rigs setting off in a spectacular fashion, soon trying to deploy to full sail. Next up was our class, with the starting pistol (a series of beeps on the radio) breaking the immense anticipation of each of the crews, having readied ourselves for the start line. The huge build up soon dissipated when the boat made a fantastic 1 knot start, thanks to a severe lack of winds: the crew, although disappointed by the anti-climax, comforted themselves in the knowledge that each of the other crews were also in a similar situation, with some boats even going backwards.

With a lack of activity to keep the watches active, they soon set about focussing their energy into creating a crew chant to bellow at passing competitors. As the boat reached an all-time low of 0 knots, the watches then further diverted their attention to “bird-watching” as we floated lazily past the other boats.#  Enterprising crew members were posted throughout the vessel with Binoculars as spotters for the local wildlife. However, it was not all that successful as we passed a boat with some old guys dancing around the mast topless, much to the horror of the crew.

As we finally got some wind and making some decent headway in the race, we came under attack by the crew of Esprit. Having chanted merrily at them with the new crew song, they returned in the traditional German manner of launching projectiles back at us (water balloons), successfully, managing to hit Ben directly in the face with a well-placed hit. Although we tried to retaliate in kind with a three man slingshot and our own water balloons, the attempts proved fruitless. The Germans have won this round… but, rest assured, we’ll be back!

The wind picked up throughout the day, and the watches were soon hard at work with racing sail changes and sail trimming to get the best possible speed out of the boat. The conclusion for day one of the Tall Ships Race gave the Rona II a position of fourth place in both class and overall standing.

Quote of the Day: “Is that a topless girl over there?! Oh no, wait, it’s just a guy with boobs…” – Reuben

 

# Afterguard might suggest the start of the race featured the rest of the crew trimming constantly to get any head way at all!! We did sail from the back of the fleet, chasing patches of wind, through to the front while others watched and focussed on their own struggles.