SINKING OVER THE START LINE
Caribbean 600 Race (Day 1) - Antigua to Saba
It’s been a busy first 24 hours of the Caribbean 600 race aboard Argonaut.
The pre-start of the race was incredible. More precisely, for us it was incredibly stressful as we discovered the prop shaft was leaking and the bilge below the engine was pretty full… safe to say that impacted our pre start tactics!
Once the race was underway, the whole crew was in awe, especially as Argo whizzed by to our port side just as the Famous Project came blazing past on our starboard side - as far as spectating was concerned, we couldn’t have had a better start if we tried!
Back into racing mode: pretty much every sail we’ve hoisted has not gone up cleanly, so there has been a fair amount of problem solving onboard!
We hit our first squall of the race, which gave us a pretty sensational sunset. As night fell, the heavier spi went up, and it was time to light the braii! Two whole chickens, some corn and halloumi seemed light work for Charles, despite a few playful attempts at broaching.
Just after midnight, we had a small celebration as we successfully gybed the spi for the first time. And by that, I mean it was the first time ever that the majority of the crew ever gybed a symmetric spinnaker, and certainly the first time this crew has done so together aboard Argonaut.
That celebration was somewhat short lived, as the dyneema lashing attaching the low friction ring to the beak broke, after which we ended up using the lazy spinnaker sheet as the guy, but this was attached to a weaker part of the toe rail… so when the next squall hit, that toe rail - having had enough of Argonaut’s antics - decided to divorce from the hull.
All hands, 5am.
That being said, it really was rather lovely helming on the spi with everything illuminated by moonlight and the distant lights of St Kitts.
Unsurprisingly, we had no problem falling asleep as we came off our respective watches. We have just woken up to the awesome sight of Saba rising from the water, and the good news that we are making up some of the distance lost last night.
