Halfway there

Scott-Free’s blog
Steve & Chris
Sat 11 May 2013 22:28
06:11.72S 114:20.099W

Distance run so far: 1295
Distance run Day 10: 153
Total distance run: 1448 nmiles

And that's as close as dammit to halfway! The rhumb line course is 2899 nmiles, so we have 1451 left to go. It will be interesting to see what the final distance will actually be when we make landfall. We might mark the occasion with a small beer later.

Not much to report today. The wind has continued between 15-25 knots and we are making good speed. The sea is alternately lively and a little less lively, so one hand is always needed to hold on with when moving around down below, and venturing out of the cockpit requires harnesses and safety lines. The sun is shining and the clouds have taken a break for the time being.

Rod called up on VHF from Sheer early this morning to say that the peace and tranqulity of their morning coffee was spoilt by a loud ripping noise, which turned out to be their mainsail tearing from leech to luff! The tear is betwen the second and third reefing lines, so they have reefed the sail down to the third reef. It's a fully battened, shaped main and this does still leave them with quite a bit of sail, so hopefully it won't slow them down too much. Certainly in the wind we have at the moment it's not a problem as they are still doing around 7 knots.