Peter Von Seesturmue
Ninaofsouthampton
Sat 1 Dec 2018 16:02
Peter Von S is a German yacht and presumably boats are male over there for her, I mean him, to be carrying this noble name. Can’t google out here so no info on the background but with a name like that, Von Seesturmuhe ( alternative spelling given in the ARC entrants list ) he must be important. All I can tell you is that she is a classic yacht because we saw her/him on Day 1 passing close by. Manufacturer was Henry Gruber and the owner is no less than Christophe Von Reibnitz. It’s all some German version of posh but the names are tricky on the tongue so we just call them Pete and Chris.
Why do we care about Pete and Chris? Using a script from Hollywood it turns out that we can see Pete on our AIS system about 10 miles ahead and Pete is the only boat in our class ahead of us. What are the chances of us being so close together after 1000 miles! More than that, other boats appear for a bit and on slightly different courses but Pete and Nina have started a more serious relationship.
We first realised that we were catching up with Pete yesterday morning. They appeared on our Chart Plotter ( Sat Nav ) 10 miles ahead. 24 hours later we had only gained another mile on them. Today they have eased ahead again to 12 miles. Still we’ve got more than a week to get this little manoeuvre done. Current tactic is to track South slightly where forecast says there is a little more wind. Though we are travelling at a steady 8.5/9 knots which is hull speed already. The wind above Parallel 20 may drop though, leaving Pete stranded. We have to hope for some chance to get past her.
We have tried to picture the owner. Christophe Von Reibnitz has to be from our Hollywood film. Big moustache? Swashbuckling like Errol Flynn? Is he a Count? Or just a Classic Yacht enthusiast? Well, whoever gets to St Lucia first, we will certainly track him down and swap notes on our days, close by, at sea together. And hopefully Nina and Pete will be moored side by side.
This is all such amazing fun but we are not racing!
Skip ( at the mercy of the wind gods )
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