Stage 3: Punta
I wasn't expecting this! Im actually getting bored sitting in my hotel room, watching Punta people stroll by.
I woke up nice and early and headed straight to the yacht club right after breakfast. The paln was to move my backpack onto the boat and come back for the rest of my stuff, after a recce.
Met a few crewmates and realised that registration was only at 1500. Then Roy told me we weren't expected to stay on the boat at all. In fact we could get on the boat directly on the 4th. David Greer was the only person who chose to stay on board. So i came right back and extended my stay for a day till i fugured my options. It being the off season, there was plenty of choice.
The evening had things looking up again. New crew were welcomed by the Clipper officials and offered a welcome beer. After which the RTWers and first leggers took over and took us out for a meal at the local pub with live music, Capi
The 1st leg was really long, 31 days, and the heat below deck made a lot of them quite fractious. The boat sailed at an angle most of the time making everything a challenge from geeting into your bunk, cooking and even peeing.
Leg 2 is likely to be mostly downwind so we may not be so heeled over. I will find out soon enough.
PSP has 3 coxswains and 2 watch leaders. The coxswains are acting skippers while the watch keaders lead each evolution on their watch. That way, should anything happen to Roy, either of the coxswains can take over.
We are said to be a happy boat, unlike some of the others, or so I'm told.
Of my crewmates, I've met David and James on my Level 4 training. Both are from the UK. I met Matteo and Clive sometime during my training in Gosport. Matteo lives in Paris and is an art dealer. Clive was a submariner in the UK Navy. Maggie is a commodities trading risk analyst for Citibank. Trevor is from Australia, near Fremantle in fact and has over 60,000 nm worth of sailing under his belt. Also met Catherine and Caitlin, both did Leg 1 and are so reluctant to say goodbye.
I got my kit thr next day. It was oversized when i tried it on in Gosport and Matt at Clipper brought along a couple of options for me to try on. The salopettes are a medium men's size but will have to do for now. But im likely to be the only person without my name on the kit.
Bought a subway from thr local supermarket, for lunch, along with some really delicious fruit yoghurt. And a 2.5 ltr bottle of still water (sin gas). The Uruguayans seem to prefer aerated water and most times opt for wine or beer over water.
Dinner was hosted by our sponsors, PSP, at a local club, Moby Dick's (prescient perhaps!?)
The Finance Director had taken the trouble to figure all our names and background and welcomed us all, individually. I met the entire crew for Leg 2 for the first time.
Oct 2 is dry day in India and turned out to be one here as well. With 40 knots of wind and pouring rain, the Skippers decided to skip the refresher training sail and we sat in harbour and did a detailed reciew of boat operations.
It was good to go through the navigation and engine room details as the surfeit of information during training and the change of boats from a 68 to 70 on Level 4, made it tough for me to remember everything.
After a day well spent, off we went for a true blue Argentinian steak dinner. Matteo figured a lovely place that served the authentic stuff along with pepperoni and blood sausages. All washed down with the local Malbec. Nice!
Woke up late, had a long shower, packed my bag with all the stuff Im least likely to need till I reach Cape Town then had a large breakfast.
Realised my cargoes were already loose for me and that i needed a belt. Also picked up a couple of botles of Coke asi remembered Dilip telling me that helped deal with seasickness.
That done, i hoisted the big bag on my back and walked to the marina to place it under my bunk. With that I'm commencing my move sea wards!
Feeling light on my feet after that, I took a walk around the southern most tip of Punta. its a narow strip of land pointing straight into the Atlantic. the roaring 40s make their presence feltand I had ti fight my way along as the wind came at me with cheerful vigor.
The streets funnel the wind and being surrounded by the ocean from 3 sides it madefor a salty, story, brisk walk.
Punta has a lot of short, squat palm trees and lots of parrots. there's also this little brown bird, the size of a wren, that makes one helluva racket like a sharp long series of whistles.
I wandered into the better part of the city and the houses looked lovely, each one unique and without a single architectural identifier. Most places are empty as its the off season.
Lunch was spinach pie and carrot salad; trying to get in as much roughage as possible.
Crew briefing was at a lovely hotel in the posh part of town, by Mark Light, the Race Director. Strong winds are expected all the waygusting betweeen 20-30 knots on Race Day. Small high pressure system to the north-east, off the coast. So we plan to sail South west and then head up. Whcih means we're unlikely to attempt the gate which is 200nm above the Circle route.
We will be sailing downwind most of the time and Trevor estimates an arrival betwwen Oct 19-21.
A nice dinner witht the crew at Romanos, a mushroom risotto, topped with a naranja cake and cream. Sinful! A quick chat with Alok and I was off to bed. D day tomorrow.
I woke up nice and early and headed straight to the yacht club right after breakfast. The paln was to move my backpack onto the boat and come back for the rest of my stuff, after a recce.
Met a few crewmates and realised that registration was only at 1500. Then Roy told me we weren't expected to stay on the boat at all. In fact we could get on the boat directly on the 4th. David Greer was the only person who chose to stay on board. So i came right back and extended my stay for a day till i fugured my options. It being the off season, there was plenty of choice.
The evening had things looking up again. New crew were welcomed by the Clipper officials and offered a welcome beer. After which the RTWers and first leggers took over and took us out for a meal at the local pub with live music, Capi
The 1st leg was really long, 31 days, and the heat below deck made a lot of them quite fractious. The boat sailed at an angle most of the time making everything a challenge from geeting into your bunk, cooking and even peeing.
Leg 2 is likely to be mostly downwind so we may not be so heeled over. I will find out soon enough.
PSP has 3 coxswains and 2 watch leaders. The coxswains are acting skippers while the watch keaders lead each evolution on their watch. That way, should anything happen to Roy, either of the coxswains can take over.
We are said to be a happy boat, unlike some of the others, or so I'm told.
Of my crewmates, I've met David and James on my Level 4 training. Both are from the UK. I met Matteo and Clive sometime during my training in Gosport. Matteo lives in Paris and is an art dealer. Clive was a submariner in the UK Navy. Maggie is a commodities trading risk analyst for Citibank. Trevor is from Australia, near Fremantle in fact and has over 60,000 nm worth of sailing under his belt. Also met Catherine and Caitlin, both did Leg 1 and are so reluctant to say goodbye.
I got my kit thr next day. It was oversized when i tried it on in Gosport and Matt at Clipper brought along a couple of options for me to try on. The salopettes are a medium men's size but will have to do for now. But im likely to be the only person without my name on the kit.
Bought a subway from thr local supermarket, for lunch, along with some really delicious fruit yoghurt. And a 2.5 ltr bottle of still water (sin gas). The Uruguayans seem to prefer aerated water and most times opt for wine or beer over water.
Dinner was hosted by our sponsors, PSP, at a local club, Moby Dick's (prescient perhaps!?)
The Finance Director had taken the trouble to figure all our names and background and welcomed us all, individually. I met the entire crew for Leg 2 for the first time.
Oct 2 is dry day in India and turned out to be one here as well. With 40 knots of wind and pouring rain, the Skippers decided to skip the refresher training sail and we sat in harbour and did a detailed reciew of boat operations.
It was good to go through the navigation and engine room details as the surfeit of information during training and the change of boats from a 68 to 70 on Level 4, made it tough for me to remember everything.
After a day well spent, off we went for a true blue Argentinian steak dinner. Matteo figured a lovely place that served the authentic stuff along with pepperoni and blood sausages. All washed down with the local Malbec. Nice!
Woke up late, had a long shower, packed my bag with all the stuff Im least likely to need till I reach Cape Town then had a large breakfast.
Realised my cargoes were already loose for me and that i needed a belt. Also picked up a couple of botles of Coke asi remembered Dilip telling me that helped deal with seasickness.
That done, i hoisted the big bag on my back and walked to the marina to place it under my bunk. With that I'm commencing my move sea wards!
Feeling light on my feet after that, I took a walk around the southern most tip of Punta. its a narow strip of land pointing straight into the Atlantic. the roaring 40s make their presence feltand I had ti fight my way along as the wind came at me with cheerful vigor.
The streets funnel the wind and being surrounded by the ocean from 3 sides it madefor a salty, story, brisk walk.
Punta has a lot of short, squat palm trees and lots of parrots. there's also this little brown bird, the size of a wren, that makes one helluva racket like a sharp long series of whistles.
I wandered into the better part of the city and the houses looked lovely, each one unique and without a single architectural identifier. Most places are empty as its the off season.
Lunch was spinach pie and carrot salad; trying to get in as much roughage as possible.
Crew briefing was at a lovely hotel in the posh part of town, by Mark Light, the Race Director. Strong winds are expected all the waygusting betweeen 20-30 knots on Race Day. Small high pressure system to the north-east, off the coast. So we plan to sail South west and then head up. Whcih means we're unlikely to attempt the gate which is 200nm above the Circle route.
We will be sailing downwind most of the time and Trevor estimates an arrival betwwen Oct 19-21.
A nice dinner witht the crew at Romanos, a mushroom risotto, topped with a naranja cake and cream. Sinful! A quick chat with Alok and I was off to bed. D day tomorrow.
Comments
Post a Comment