Position
at noon GMT
on 11 December 2006 was
13.44.02N, 55.54.03W. 190.3 nautical miles sailed in last 24 hours on the
boat log. 294 nautical miles to go to
St
Lucia.
Well here
we are with under 300 miles to go. We heard yesterday that Duckwall Pooley, a
Beneteau First 42S7, crewed by a delightful band of Scots had lost it's
rig with 160 miles to go. They were leading our class over the water (before
handicaps are applied), and at least 300 miles ahead of us. Apparently all on
board are safe, and by now they will be safely tied up, having motored the
remaining distance to Rodney Bay, St Lucia. We feel very much for them because
they have raced that boat so well.
All
discussion on board Majic 2 relates to when the light winds will arrive. This
will really hurt the boats that have not finished at the time the wind speed
drops, since handicapping premises are based on standard wind and tide
conditions for all boats in a race. If the slower boats have to battle on in
light airs it will definitely affect their corrected times
The ARC
weather briefing service is predicting a drop of 5 to 10 knots by midnight
tonight, and Aden Clark, our Guernsey-based ground controller is forecasting the
same. The mathematical model we have downloaded over the internet gives noon
tomorrow, and The US met service is giving Wednesday morning. If we keep the
present wind force of easterly 25 knots to the finish we will be in Rodney
Bay in the early hours of Wedenesday morning.
We have
had an email from one of our regular correspondents asking how we adjust our
clocks to the 4 hour time zone difference between Cran Canaria and St Lucia.
What happens usually on board ship is that clocks are moved by 1 hour for every
15 degrees of longitude travelled. We haven't bothered for many reasons. The
main one being that we are working 4 hour watches through every day and week, so
sunrise, sunset, mealtimes and bedtime mean nothing to us. So we settled on
running our lives on GMT, and will take the jet lag effect in one hit when we
arrive, in much the same way as aircraft passengers
do.
