Ingenue leads Double Handed fleet

by Rob Kothe on 16 Jul 2006 Rosie Colahan and David James have sailed their Jeanneau 40 Ingenue into the lead on handicap, in the 1,850 nautical mile Melbourne to Vanuatu race.

As they approach Port Vila, they’ve found time for a last update.

‘Sunday dawned with fresh SE breezes, which have been very welcome after the stop - start winds we have had overnight. Our biggest fear today was that if the winds were on the light side, we may have well needed to use the spinnaker we shredded yesterday to keep up our average speeds to make sure we did not get left behind.

‘Fortunately, we have had 15 K SE today with occasional gusts to 19K and we have been pulled along nicely with our NO 1 headsail and full main.

‘Having set out on the journey for adventure and to test the boat and ourselves over an ocean passage and enjoy the camaraderie of the racing fleet, we are somewhat surprised and delighted to find that we have made it to the top of our two handed division on corrected time.

‘Suddenly, the spreadsheets and the calculators have appeared and we have been glued to the chart plotter and tweaking endlessly.

’The most frustrating parts of the trip have been when we have had no wind and we have sat there and rocked and rolled with the sails slatting going nowhere - probably contributed to the gooseneck falling apart along the way.

‘As we are a relatively heavy cruising boat (10 ton laden), we have been keen to stay where the wind is and hence headed East from Gabo Island as drifting southwards in the East Australian Current was not an option!

’We then paid the price being chased and overcome by a southerly trough
moving north which failed to die and resulted in us running overnight under storm jib and lazy bag - great combination and were we moving !

‘However southerlies from behind in the 30s latitudes are much more fun than southerlies on the nose in the Roaring 40s - Robyn Brooke (BOOTS) has obviously been there too often with George and I concur when she says 'Take me somewhere warm George'!

‘The highlights have been the weather and the camaraderie amongst the fleet.

‘The 1700hr 'chat session' hosted by Lionel at Mersey Radio has been compulsory listening and has produced an array of entertainments from poetry and comedy, cooking and fishing.

‘The weather keeps getting warmer and we have had some magic, glorious sunny days swishing across sapphire blue seas, listening to music and watching the moon rise in the East as the sun was setting in the West. Our most decadent day was lunching on BBQ Greek lamb and trimmings, whilst reaching along under MPS.

’Fortunately the BBQ was not in action yesterday, when the other spinnaker split vertically up the middle and then proceeded to wrap itself around the BBQ - was not sure what to try and save first.

’With our current boat speed around 8 knots, we have an ETA to the finish line around 1930hrs tonight.

‘As Quarantine and Customs in Vanuatu do not usually work on the weekend, it looks as though we may be joining our fellow competitors anchored off the Quarantine buoy for the night in the 'Party Q'.

’The island of Efate is in our sights and we need to keep plugging away safely and not doing anything rash and throw away a potential victory.

‘To paraphrase the skipper of Southerly, Don Mickleborough, 'Old Age and Treachery will beat Youth and Enthusiasm anytime'!!!!



in•gé•nue also in•ge•nue
1. A naive, innocent girl or young woman.

2.
a. The role of an ingénue in a dramatic production.
b. An actress playing such a role.

[French, feminine of ingénu, guileless, from Latin ingenuus, ingenuous; see ingenuous.]