The Famous Project CIC’s third week at sea has been one of adjustment and acceptance. On Tuesday, the crew completed their journey across the Atlantic Ocean and passed the Cape of Good Hope – the first of the three major landmarks of this round-the-world race. As they head into the Indian Ocean they are having to strike the right balance between steering and autopilot, choosing the right headsails combined with their mainsail, which is still restricted by the hook blockage.
Dee reflects on their first three weeks at sea:
“End of week 3 and although it’s gone incredibly fast, I have to admit we are not as far down the course as I had hoped we would be. It has been a mixed start and I lost sight of the bigger picture. The first objective was to start, the second objective to finish….and then we will worry about how we did. I got excited and wanted to go fast so when we had our set back in the south Atlantic before we went round the Cape of Good Hope with our mainsail lock it was quite frustrating and it took a little bit of time for everyone to process. We lost a couple of days of speed by trying to sort the problem and I think we had to look at the perspective of what we are setting out to do. If we go in the south compromised, we won’t be sailing properly. Is it what we want to do? But it was about changing our mindset. It was about realising that this is an amazing opportunity and one that we are quite lucky and privileged to have. Here we are just a few days later doing 30 knots for 24 hours and making it feel easy and comfortable. I think the whole process has been about learning the boat, learning to sail a 100ft trimaran at 30 knots continuously in the big waves and the big winds and we just hadn’t been exposed to that before. We are getting more confident with each other, more confident with the boat, we are trusting the settings of trim and the autopilot to help us in this job and I think the enjoyment level is coming back. So, the frustration was hard for a few days and everyone took their time to come back on board but I think now we have got a team stronger and more resilient than ever, with the objective to finish and do it in the best possible way we can.“
You can follow The Famous Project CIC’s record attempt on the following platforms:
- The Famous Project CIC tracking map: https://thefamousproject.io/mapster-wp-map/tracking-theboat/
- Website: https://thefamousproject.io/
- The Famous Project CIC on social media: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook