First day Rolex Fastnet Race 2009 (II)

August 10, 2009

After a good nap, I continue my story of the first 24 hours but I hardly know where I stopped.

Anyhow our choice for the Bill of Portland appeared disastrous. The wind died completely so we had no choice but to let us drift at 1-2 knots speed, mainly created by the tide, East of the Bill of Portland. The rest you, sailors, can imagine. Some boats ahead of us went the whole way into the Bay of Weymouth (next sailing Olympic area!) in order to get a sweep out of the bay. We could not see what really happened to them.

In the morning the wind got awake and started at 12 knots so we kept our Genoa Light on.

It was then that we discovered that our overall ranking was a 52nd place    or a 19th place in IRC-2 Class.

At around 1100 we made a tack whereby our new Genoa I ripped in the spreader but since the wind increased at Start Point upto 27-29 knots we had no delay until that moment. We sticked to Genoa II all the way when passing Start Point.

When the seas got calmer, the crew, mainly Frank and Joost Heikens, started to repair the patch of Genoa I and we hope it will appear to be succesfull.

I had to interrupt this writing because we needed to change from Genoa II to the recently repaired Genoa I but within minutes from completing the change, the wind increase again to over 18 knots so we needed to change again Genoa I, which was looking reasonably well, to Genoa II so now Hendrik, Joost D and Frank are sitting in the cockpit looking exhausted. Wind continues to blow at 14-16 knots so we will stick for the moment to Genoa II knowing the not 100% condition of Genoa I.

We are 30nM away from Lizard Pt and after that we will proceed to Seven Stones in between Lands End and Isles of Scilly and enter the Irish Sea. I do trust that our dolphin friends are awaiting us as usual.

Next writing you can expect only tomorrow.

ciao

ps we are eating Sophia’s food and that is again delicious.