Three Degrees
Flyer of Lorne
Dave Sturrock
Thu 11 Dec 2008 12:55
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15:26.77N 55:38.86W
Wednesday 11 December 08, Days Run
181NM
A scintillating days sailing as Flyer found top
gear to give us our best days run in the ARC with a VMG of 180NM which was
highly efficient sailing. The wind in this period had been steady at NE F4-5
which had first our NO.2 Gennaker hoisted at 10:00hrs and then our NO.1 Big
Brother from 15:30 as the breeze was steady at 16knots. We kept this flying
overnight which really kept our average speed up at 8knots and Flyer fairly
purred along. As this sail plan had us sailing close to our broach point,
each watch had to closely monitor wind gusts and bear off as required to
keep the gennaker flying. Instead of fresher conditions during the night we
had more wind at first light and after several broaches we reluctantly doused
the Gennaker and unfurled the Genoa at 06:00. Although we were able to maintain
tge same boatspeed, the wind veered to ENE which pushed us to the North of our
rhumb line course giving a track of 300degrees magnetic
Our fast progress meant we are able to cover
exactly 3 degrees of longitude towards our destination. As our finish line at St
Lucia is at the following co-ordinates 14º
04.8N,
060º 57.82W and the positions reported in this blog were taken at 09:30 local time ( 12:30GMT), I will let our students and armchair navigators estimate our ETA! The current wind direction is ENE F4-5 which means Flyer has to gybe downwind as she will sail no lower than 150 degrees off the true wind. I will be impressed if we receive any responses which our close to our current calculated ETA. We had a live phone link during the morning with
Ivor Neil of Limavady College and a class of Outdoor Pursuits students whoi are
following Flyer's progress in the ARC. Buster and myself proceeded to answer
questions from this group on what kind of planning and preparation had gone into
the venture and of course how much food we needed to carry to feed 5 hungry men!
It is great to see the blog site being used by so many people and for
educational purposes.
Dave Sturrock
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