Report on Race 2: Maderia to Rio de Janero

Departed on August 12 at about 14.00 hours. We crossed the start line in about 6th position. Again we were first to hoist our spinnaker. There was a small fleet of craft to wave good bye and amongst the ships a naval frigate with the President of Madeira on board. He had visited our yacht just prior to the prize giving ceremony and commented that we had “beautiful girl crew on board”.
This is our first transatlantic crossing which will take us 3,700 n miles to Rio.
Ships log entries:
13/8/11 Flying fish becoming a more regular occurrence in the ocean & on deck.
14/8/11 Now leading the fleet. Our rightful place!
15/8/11 Chafe is an ongoing problem particularly halyards & guys. Various modifications have been made and have reduced to a point, but there is still a bloody long way to go. Skipper is concerned about the ITCZ and chaffing.
16/8/11 Just wrapped the spinnaker 0300 am
18/8/11 Medium weight spinnaker just exploded from top to leach . All hands on deck early afternoon. Heavy weight spinnaker hoisted.
19/8/11 EGS very rough seas warning.
20/8/11 Three members of crew seasick - luckily it’s not me, now I have my sea legs after the stint down from Southampton. The bilges are now being pumped every two hours. We are carrying out buckets. Well heeled over.
22/8/11 Very warm day, amazing sunrise a red ball of fire.
23/8/11 Tanning despite my connection with MPA (Melanoma Patients Aust).
Equator party today at 00o 00o 010 s. Night sky just starting to show the Southern Cross. We are in the southern hemisphere.
26/8/11 Gibb snap shackle broke on the spinnaker down she came.
27/8/11 A beautiful morning Pat on the helm we are in line with El Salvador.
* The log entries are done every hour by the various watches – hopefully these short extracts gives you a bit of an insight!!!
Let me share with you a typical menu and the preparation carried out by the ‘mother watch’ three times a day.
Breakfast: Porridge or muesli with mixed milk powder.
Lunch: Powdered scrambled eggs with bread baked earlier.
Dinner: Macaroni cheese.
Treats maybe something as simple as opening a pack of biscuits or making some popcorn.
Mothers morning prep is to make up the milk for breakfast.
Make up the cordial for the morning watch.

Bake any bread, scones or cookies that are in the day bag.

Divide any chocolates, sweets into 3 watches for the next 24 hours.

Mothers evening prep is to retrieve the next day food bag out of the locker.

Soak any beans for the next day’s food.

Ships log entries:
28/8/11 Passing huge offshore oilfields on platforms about 100 nautical miles from coast of Brazil. 17 platforms in total.

30/8/11 Strong winds overnight came close to broaching twice. Heavy weight spinnaker ripped from top to bottom. Skipper at the helm at the time doing 23 knots. All hands on deck. Put up the Yankee 2 still doing 15 to 20 knots downwind. 105 nm to Rio.

Arrived in Rio (first across the line!) at about 3.30am. We had to drop sails and wait in the harbour for daybreak and the light so that the film crew could capture our arrival. No welcoming craft. It was an anti climax arriving when you compare it to Madeira.
Great to be here and we have the next 10 days on shore all be it that many days will be spent on the deep clean, sewing sails & doing the numerous repair jobs. Heads, caulking every entry point into the yacht so that we lessen the bilge carrying.

We could see the Christ the Redeemer statue on the surrounding hilltop and the way the clouds covered the hill it appeared to hover with a bright light illuminating it.

We were advised by Clipper we were third through the “scoring "gate" with one extra point awarded and the fastest through 5° to 10° south 301 nm in just on 30 hours and awarded one extra point making the total of 12 points for winning the race. 
Congratulations to all the crew & a big thank you to all out there that are following the race and a very special thank you to those who donated more for Melanoma Patients Australia at the end of this first leg.

This is my first internet cafe experience. Photos to follow shortly. Thanks heaps again Jan & Chrissy for being there & making this work.

We sail for Cape Town in South Africa tomorrow departure in the middle of the afternoon. They are predicting rougher, cooler weather so we’ll see how we go.

All the best for now.
BAMO