British Soldier TransAtlantic Race - Situation Report no 9
Britishsoldier
Fri 8 Jul 2011 16:59
along a line from Newfoundland to Brittany.
The last 48 hrs have been fast, with runs of over 200miles in each 24hrs.
The crew are now very familiar with the boat, and happy about surfing with a
kite in the fog and rain, at night. Hard work though - one 3-hr night watch
changed sails from spinnaker to poled-out jib, to asymettric spinnaker, to
jib and then back to big spinnaker - and all in the pouring rain. Miserable
stuff if being honest..Luckily yesterday was an opportunity to dry out.
We're still surfing along on a beam reach with the kite at about 9 knots.
Continuing concentration required.
Attrition has been no more than expected. Spinnaker halyards have been
chopped and re-spliced; spinnaker guy ends and a sheet have been chopped and
tied, and one spinnaker has a repairable tear.
Despite no fridge the rations are holding up well and the bread is still
white. But the gas remains rationed for just 2 brews a day, the only
concession being a slug of Baileys in the coffee for the night watch, if its
cold, obviously....
1860 miles logged so far, with 992 to run. We passed the 30W meridian
today, so our clocks have gone forward another hour, now GMT-1.
As British Rail used to say, 'we're getting there'. Hmmm,
TransAtlantic Race tracker: www.transatlanticrace.org/tracker
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