Life can be rough somtimes, at sea

August 24, 2010

After we scored a new Winsome record by logging 205.1 Nm in (the first) 24 hours, we really got a rough time. Winds upto 40 knots, forcing us to take two reefs in the Mainsail. Genoa III was flying already. Before we could even decide go for Genoa IV, the wind eased to 35-37 knots so we continued with Genoa III, not in the last place because we had to navigate Winsome in between two shallow water spots. This all happened some 30 Nm North of Great Ysrmouth.

We are still in one piece, but the last eight were far from pleasant.

The wind is now easing to 20 knots so we hope being able to change Genoa III which got somehow damaged in has a hole in the tack, so that we can try to repair it tomorrow.

Fortunately we have a sailmaker on board. Winds are likely to ease during the night and tomorrow to 15 knots and we may expect even less wind on Thursday according to our USGrib files.

We have noticed that we did fall back in the ranking to the lowest place with an indication NL of which we do not know what it means. Do not wory please since we have got Selene in sight and we know that Beluga is in front us, last time when she had her AIS on at some 5 Nm.

We are going now into the night. One reef just taken out of the Mainsail. Wind 21-22 knots.

The food on board is good as you may have concluded from the photo in the previous message and our mood is excellent. Winsome is doing wellm but please do not forget that we are by rating standards the slowest boat in this race.

Best regards