14 17 788N 050 56 878W

Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Sun 7 Dec 2008 06:16
Hi Chris,
 
Our position is 14 17 788N 050 56 878W.
 
Current information:
Wind strength: 14 knots
Wind direction: 062
Heading: 289
Boatspeed: 9.5 knots (A2, + staysail - starboard tack)
 
Historical (last 12 - 24 hours):
Wind strength: 6.5 - 22 knots (max in squall yesterday morning at 0930 - 1130, when we were engulfed by rain cloud from South, had heavy rain, for some time and breeze shifted 180 degrees - were going upwind on port with J3 on heading of 288 degrees) 
Wind direction: 054 - 185 (in squall again) without squall 054 - 096.
Heading: 310 - 280
Boatspeed: 7 - 12 knots (most has been recently has breeze has been increasing and going left)
 
Another interesting day weatherwise! Interestingly I don't think the squall did us too much harm as when we were heading back to Cape Verde we took the chute down put the jib up and were back on course doing around 9 knots. We had Desna to Starboard before the squall engulfed us and then came out some way infront after lunch.
 
Pricipally, since then we have been on course, aiming to do rhumb line until we get a reason to do anything else, and depending on phases of the breeze we have been doing pretty reasonable boatspeed in the right direction. Our days run until 1240 was 188 by our reckoning and 184 by the ARC (until midday point to point) so we were basically happy with that. We seem to have had a good showing against most of the contenders though some of the boats behing are very close (Earendil, Complicity, Caiman, Coyote) and P42 remain the leader by our reckoning - we need to be another 50 miles + infront of them right now to be infront on handicap and we are not sure we have the leverage to extend that sort of gain against them - we could do with them parking up for a while.     
 
Very close as we get onto home straight now - any ideas? 583 nautical miles to go.
 
Regards,
Duncan