IT'S ONLY ON THIS WEBSITE: Read Jeremy's First Entry In His On-Board Journal Crewing In the Yacht Race!
by Jeremy Irons, Jeremy's On-Board Journal
February 23, 2001
Off watch, on deck for a last smoke with the remains of my coffee. Black night, no moon, no stars, as LG FLATRON powers on through the mist at over 10knots. I sit with my back to the cockpit surrounded by the ghostly grey standing silhouettes of the watch at their stations. The sea the colour of wet lead, the sky of dry, the blurred horizon heaving up and down as LG swerves through the lumpy night. To my right the white foam races by and away, blinking with tiny phosphorescent firecrackers. The only colour in this palette of greys is the orange glow of the binnacle light mirrored on a chrome rail, and a pale yellow from below glowing on a winch.
Thus we hurtle on through the darkness with me wishing I had the talent to paint this scene - Yeats could have done it - since somehow it seems to be the very essence of what we are doing - sailing into an unknown future, relying on our boat and each other. Straining to get the most out of her and ourselves. A touch of madness and the touch of a miracle.
I go below to jot down these wonderings, and as the hum of the generator tries to drown out Jerry Garcia I catch the muffled voices of the watch preparing to peel the spinnaker. Above the chart table the clock reads 22:45. Time for bed - my watch will have me up at 23:30. A 45 minute kip will have to do.