TOPAZ 07/02 Race Report
We have made it to day 10. I’m guessing things probably smell pretty bad inside of topaz at this point, but luckily I’m part of the problem so it hasn’t been an issue for any of the crew aboard.
I’m trying to take advantage of the lighter winds since I know I can outperform on the fleet in these conditions, while still leaving a little reserve in the tank for pushing hard through the finish. Given the lighter winds, and favorable angle, I decided to put up my # 4 on a small pendant to act as a spinnaker staysail with very positive results. I had to actually depower the boat quite a bit just now to come down and write this, and also get a nap in. Would be a shame to push hard with over 400 miles to go only to end up breaking something.
I forgot to remove the big block of cheese from the fridge when I unplugged it. Just a day I had said, but that was 3 days ago. When I opened the fridge this morning it was sitting in a small pooled of liquid that had a very unnatural looking green yellow color. The smell was something I could detect and I almost immediately lost my breakfast before throwing more water and dish soap into the thing and removing the now moldy cheese to toss overboard. After a few hours, the treatment worked and I was able to empty the fridge of the mystery liquid and get it cleaned out. Phew.
Here is a list of possessions that I have thus far lost at sea:
1) my favorite bucket. I have a second bucket that is the generic Home Depot orange deal, but the other one had a certain je ne sais quoi that made it my preferred bucket
2) my cooking pot. This was a dishwashing incident gone awry and was lent to me by a friend. I have ordered not one but 2 replacements since it fit my stove so well I figured I should get one as a permanent addition to topaz. I have a kettle which I now use as a pot. It’s fine but I liked the pot better.
3) 6 gallons of water. I was using these as my “rail meat” which in hindsight was not wise. Even though being lashed in tight, I crashed after waking up to a squall and watched them slip out of the lashings and into the big drink. Don’t Panic! I have more water and was already murmuring about dumping these though I would have preferred to have done it without having the plastic go into the ocean as well.
I suspect there are more items to this list but I can’t recall them at the moment. Not feeling great for contributing to all the trash I see out here, but accidents happen, and luckily all of these things had spares/are non essential. I now require a tether not only for my self but also for the Starlink whenever I bring it out to send these emails less I lose that too.
All for now, Topaz just keeps sailing…
We have made it to day 10. I’m guessing things probably smell pretty bad inside of topaz at this point, but luckily I’m part of the problem so it hasn’t been an issue for any of the crew aboard.
I’m trying to take advantage of the lighter winds since I know I can outperform on the fleet in these conditions, while still leaving a little reserve in the tank for pushing hard through the finish. Given the lighter winds, and favorable angle, I decided to put up my # 4 on a small pendant to act as a spinnaker staysail with very positive results. I had to actually depower the boat quite a bit just now to come down and write this, and also get a nap in. Would be a shame to push hard with over 400 miles to go only to end up breaking something.
I forgot to remove the big block of cheese from the fridge when I unplugged it. Just a day I had said, but that was 3 days ago. When I opened the fridge this morning it was sitting in a small pooled of liquid that had a very unnatural looking green yellow color. The smell was something I could detect and I almost immediately lost my breakfast before throwing more water and dish soap into the thing and removing the now moldy cheese to toss overboard. After a few hours, the treatment worked and I was able to empty the fridge of the mystery liquid and get it cleaned out. Phew.
Here is a list of possessions that I have thus far lost at sea:
1) my favorite bucket. I have a second bucket that is the generic Home Depot orange deal, but the other one had a certain je ne sais quoi that made it my preferred bucket
2) my cooking pot. This was a dishwashing incident gone awry and was lent to me by a friend. I have ordered not one but 2 replacements since it fit my stove so well I figured I should get one as a permanent addition to topaz. I have a kettle which I now use as a pot. It’s fine but I liked the pot better.
3) 6 gallons of water. I was using these as my “rail meat” which in hindsight was not wise. Even though being lashed in tight, I crashed after waking up to a squall and watched them slip out of the lashings and into the big drink. Don’t Panic! I have more water and was already murmuring about dumping these though I would have preferred to have done it without having the plastic go into the ocean as well.
I suspect there are more items to this list but I can’t recall them at the moment. Not feeling great for contributing to all the trash I see out here, but accidents happen, and luckily all of these things had spares/are non essential. I now require a tether not only for my self but also for the Starlink whenever I bring it out to send these emails less I lose that too.
All for now, Topaz just keeps sailing…
