Day 3: That was a real smoking volcano
Purple Mist
Skipper: Kate Cope
Thu 23 Feb 2023 00:23
Day 3: That was a real smoking volcano
Early this morning we started the long reach from the far north of the course to the far south. This point of sail favours the longer boats so whilst we had been doing a fine job holding off the 67ft Rubicon boat Bluejay, it sid finally squeeze past this morning.
The views are stunning, the various islands are often capped with their own personal clouds. Best of all was Monserrat as it not only has itsown cloud but the volcano on the south side was smoking away. Apparently the residents have all had to move to the north of the island to escape the activity. The sea has an exclusion zone which we had to respect so you can avoid any lava flows !
As we came past the west of Antigua we had another hazard of crossing boats. There the Volvo70s were all sending it downwind as some crazy speed to the last mark Redonda whilst we were passing through. It’s a double hazard as they are a collision risk in both directions
All is well aboard and we are in good spirits. I’m glad to have bought many changes of clothes as often it’s too hot to wear oilies and then it just takes one wave and you are drenched. It’s not cold though, only wet, you do dry out but it’s pretty salty. Claire had to have a big hair detangling session this afternoon as it was starting to look like a birds nest.
It’s a bit disappointing to be at the back but at least we are not last. In fact the update I’ve just got we’ve gone from 38th to 34th in IRC Overall and 2nd in Doublehanded though I suspect that’s because we have just done the fast leg and others ahead are on slower legs. You can place your bets on whether we will make the party on Friday. At the halfway stage the time taken would put us at 7pm Friday however the second half has more upwind legs. We also still have the big wind shadow of Guadeloupe to negotiate. We did practise this leg in the other direction during the delivery and it’s fair to say we resorted to engine at times! No engine allowed during the race of course. Anyway it’s not all bad as Guadeloupe has EU roaming so a chance to catch up.