On the boom fixing the outhaul
saying goodbye in Hull, an emotional day for all involved
Navigation on board on our way down the channel
Pumping out the bilges, a constant activity!
After a few tears and a fairly emotional send off from Hull the team on Uniquely Singapore were happy to get out to sea and get stuck into the first race that saw the fleet racing down the English Channel to La Rochelle in the Bay of Biscay. The weather gods were certainly smiling on us this first week as we had a fair breeze and no rain all the way from the start to the finish. On board Singapore the crew all quickly settled into the watch routine: There are 19 crew members on board, organised into two groups by the Skipper. These two groups work in shifts, 5 hours at night and 3 hours during the day in rotation. This means that each watch has only one night watch in every 24 hours to contend with and, so far, no one is feeling the affects of sleep deprivation at all!
After the start the team settled into a mid fleet position which was maintained over the entire first day, however we had our first breakage after dark fell when the outhaul snapped. This meant that we had to sail with a reefed mainsail over night until it could be fixed during daylight hours and as a result we slid towards the back of the fleet, finding ourselves in 9th at one point. The next day I went out on the boom and with help from the guys on watch managed to tie a temporary strop around the clew of the mainsail so that we could have a full sail once more. It was quite nice being out at the end of the boom as we were going past the White Cliffs of Dover at the time and there was a great view from my elevated position! With a full mainsail up Uniquely Singapore was back in the race and the crew/s full attention was given over to catching up the California and Edinburgh teams who were just over the horizon. The wind direction was a consistent North Easterly for the entire race and this made for some great surfing conditions coming in to La Rochelle. With 12 miles to the finish, having overtaken Team California and the Qing Dao Team who were struggling with a halyard failure, we saw Edinburgh just ahead of us. With another competitor so close our killer instincts suddenly surfaced and there was some very determined driving and focussed trimming in the last few hours that paid off dividends as we managed to scoop a 7th place finish! All of the crew were happy that we had managed to pull back from our early gear failure, however having now had 4 days in La Rochelle to fix the boat and prepare ourselves for the next leg the mood on board is of determination to be more competitive in the coming days and to fight for a podium finish in Rio. To this end we have been patching, splicing and reorganising the boat with all of our attention being on speed: how can we make the boat lighter and faster? The other boats in the Clipper fleet will need to keep their eyes open in the next race, Uniquely Singapore has a score to settle!
