Send Hannah Sailing

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Since my last blog we have had incredible winds - I have helmed in 38 knots of breeze over monster waves - so I am super happy!  Last night on watch we went from a storm jib and reefed main through all the heads sails and to full main so I am pretty tired - but in a very good way!  The seascape is just incredible!  We even
saw a rainbow made from moonlight the other night - it was in greys rather than colour

Today we have an unexpected break in light winds and we are waiting in hope that our southern strategy pays off with big westerly winds to blow us up to Cape Town.  My finger isn't painful any more although I dont think it will heal until Port now . Hopefully the salt water keeps it clean though.

During last night I accidentally got 2 fingers jammed in a block with the
main sheet.  This means that I can only just use my left hand.  I think I
will lose a fingernail and I have a really deep messy cut.  I nearly
fainted at th time but  I was back up on deck
in 10 mins - I dont think I can remember anything so painful!

Anyway 6 hours later was my first watch as watch leader (I am currently assistant to the watch leader but he was on mother watch).  It was a bit
hairy as we had a force 5/6  a big swell and 3 new members of crew who were
in experienced with the kite.  I set up a mentoring system no the trim with
crew members tat did the last race and supervised the helm.  I also talked
them through an emergency kite drop.  (that was particularly helpful later
on...)  All went well so I went to bed happy but nervous as I could feel
the wind picking up.  I was still in a lot of pain so couldn't really
contribute to sailing other than direction and some
helming.

4 hours later I get back on deck - we have the medium weight kite up still,I did most of the helming for the 1st 2 hours and
basically called the trim on the kite from the back of the boat.  The wind got up some more so skipper came up on deck and we
hardened up on the wind (more upwind) which builds up the apparent wind strength.   Unfortunately this the entire end of the spinnaker pole snaped off and the kite blew out of control.
 I then had to run the kite drop (during which the kite got a MASSIVE rip) and get the headsails up.  Rupert (skipper) was on the helm
and Chris and Jim (the other watch leaders) came on deck to help out but I still ran the manoeuvre which was really cool.  Bit of a baptism of fire!  I had so much adrenaline I forgot all about the finger and as a result it is now a bit
worse as I couldnt feel the pain to stop using it!

Now we have 35+ knots of wind screaming along - the record is 22 knots of boat speed on the most amazingly huge waves.  The
sea is a really deep blue and where the waves crash it looks the same colour as ice - totally what I was hoping for from
this leg - DEFINITELY not easy sailing!