Things are hotting up........
Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Sun 30 Nov 2008 07:15
Hi All,
Just a brief update from the world of Fair Do's at
0646 on Sunday 30th November 2008, truly in the mid atlantic (1692 miles from St
Lucia, 900 miles from Africa).
Very hard night last night, really, really dark,
difficult wave angle, very disorientating to helm - I have had a couple of spin
outs where you get dizzy, feel the boat is spinning round into the breeze and
can't ratify with your heading - this means you start big overcorrections on the
helm and make the whole thing worse. Matt H has been great and bailed me out of
the sh*te on a number of occasions mid spin out.
Somewhat, annoyingly this darkness now lasts for 13
hours, darker than I have ever seen, with no dusk. This means you pretty
much wish away your night watch to just try and get through sailing the boat as
fast as you can on a safer angle. Luckily ours last night was punctuated by
peeling from A2 to A5 when it got windy and back to A2 later - this makes it go
faster.
Firstly, some sad news. One of the boats we have
been following very closely in contention way up North, Geisha, as we
viewed to be in contention has been dismasted and is limping back to the Azores.
Unfortunate, but their Northerly route was always going to put them in the way
of some pretty bad weather. We sent them an e-mail wishing them well and hoping
they get back OK.
Down our end of the course, which is over 700
nautical miles South as the crow flies, we are right in the middle of a drag
race to the finish, with a number of boats very much in contention. The slight
complication being a low pressure which is set to pass over most of the course
and give a prolonged period of light, and on occasions upwind breeze, which will
also disrupt the trades. As it stands we are trying to skirt this banf
of light airs as best we can, crossing at the shortest distance, of light airs,
and maintain breeze from behind. Again this is extra distance which we would
rather not sail but seems the safest, and quickest option.
As we see it, though your view of the AC
tracker probably gives you the best view we are in the middle of a bunch of 6
boats spread North to South, from us over a vertical distance of
about 250 miles. Many of the boats are much
closer, and we passed one who had snuck ahead during the night, within about a
mile of them - suspect Desna.....
This bunch includes: Desna, Nisida, Incisor, Big
Spirit, P42 (leading on handicap we suspect), Nova One, Stormvogel - in the main
the handicaps even out where everybody is at(ish) but we certainly have a lot to
do to beat them. North in the course Silandra, and optim'x are well in, and
technically closer to finish, but we think they will get some punishment (both
very light and strong breeze on the nose) and a prolonged period of little
wind.
In a nutshell right now is key, and we need a good
Assymetric Gybe Angle on the long gybe to St Lucia to give us the best
chances.
On a personal level we are devastated at the
apparent Abysmal failure at Twickenham once more, against the Kiwi's - though it
has been a source of some merriment for Hugh who was happy with the Welsh
scoreline! He even dressed in Welsh national costume late afternoon to
celebrate.
This was after the first real shower and wash for
two of the watches, red and green, having gone a week without a proper
scrubbing. Blue prioritised sleep and as a result are now rumoured to be highly
offensive on the nose.....
Detected first stowaways yesterday - maggots. Some
of the boil in the bag food had been split, two bags, and rapidly gone off which
necessitated removing all food from outer packets and washing in salt water as
well as some disinfection down below in boxes - not ideal.
Spirits remain high, ridicule of each othr, has
reached an all time low and offshore turrets (potty mouth) has afflicted
many of the crew - it may be connected to grime?!
Still dark now, sun not coming up until 0816
now we are further South and West, and the moonrises at 1035(AM!?) which leads
to significant confusion, and disorientation.
There maybe a further beard update later if time
allows......
Hope all well at home - Box saying 8 days to the
finish (though we feel it is a little optimistic!)
Still awaiting the news on the Shepherd clan
addition, we're rooting for you Katie!
Regards,
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