Race 3 came with plenty of challenges. We were struck by lightning early on in the race and lost our wind instruments, AIS that informs us of other boats’ locations and vice versa to avoid collisions, and the ability to charge our batteries with our generator. The lightning strike pushed us to not be so dependent on our instruments and pay more attention to how the boat was behaving. We had to keep a more vigilant eye out for other boats and use a hand bearing compass to evaluate if there was collision potential. We turned the engine on (not in gear) to charge the batteries. We were stuck in some wind holes. We accidentally dropped our Code 2 spinnaker sail in the water and had to turn around to retrieve it. We tested our retrieval skills that we had learned in training and worked together as a team. We damaged the sail while we were retrieving it. Our sail repair team stepped up and patched it back together. We had cold and challenging conditions. I was still struggling with my attitude. Our watermaker broke. We were not able to fix our water maker and had to ration fresh water. Our Isles and Oceans (another boat in the fleet) transferred a spare watermaker to us and the transfer was a bit messy. Olaf, our engineer, did get the spare watermaker working before we ran out of drinking water. The spare watermaker had a hose that we had to run the extra salty water back out of the boat with which worked well to wash the deck. We wrapped a halyard around one of the spreaders, bending it up to a 45 degree angle so our mast wasn’t fully supported on one side. Did I mention wind holes? One wind hole also gave us the opportunity to fix our spreader with the help of some satellite phone calls back to the maintenance crew. AND see some whales. We saw one and then a bit later, two. I joked that the one went and found his buddy and brought him back to laugh at us. Our AQP also developed a pretty aggressive kidney infection and was on bed rest so we relied solely on our skipper to lead us. We were pushed to be more independent with our skipper tired and AQP sick.
With the standard demands of living on board and racing and sailing compounded with the extra stress of our many challenges, I was worn down. I’ve always been a 120% person. I literally give my all but I end up feeling depleted, burnt out, and resentful then I give 0%. I’m an all or none, an A game or F game person. I have known that I needed to find more balance but this lesson was even more clear on the boat. If I give 120%, the boat takes about 150% so I hit rock bottom pretty fast so I really need to give 70% so I have reserves left for me. I started to do what I was capable of and give myself grace for the areas that I didn’t put all my effort into. I started to learn to recognize what is essential, what is priority, what can wait, and what I really shouldn’t even worry about. “For it is not a requisite that man should run faster than he has strength.”- Mosiah 4:27 I started to learn how to be at peace with not giving to the point that I was broken. I started to have grace for others that didn’t give until they were broken also. I started to give grace to others that might have a lesser breaking point than mine also.
Race 3 Title: Development of a C game.
At the end of the race, we still completed it. We still sailed across the South Atlantic Ocean into Cape Town at dawn. Sometimes we go for completion points and that’s okay.
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