Crew Blog

The race to race continues

10 May 2008

Since our mast fell over on 5th March, and we got sailing under jury rig, we have been in a constant race. First to get to Midway, then to get to Hawaii, and then to get to Santa Cruz in time to race with the rest of the fleet. We made it, albeit with very little time to think in Santa Cruz.

Then it was into the ninth race, Santa Cruz to Panama. With very limited preparation time, I grabbed a few weather forecast and current charts. The former all said good tail winds for the first few days, which indeed we got. The latter suggested that the current was to be found in shore, rather than 100 miles off, as it normally is. Unfortunately, the charts we got were not 100 percent. There was some current inshore, but not as much as suggested, and it was also offshore, where there was wind. So a ninth place in the truncated ninth race, and now we have to race to be in Panama in time for the next leg.
The time will not be wasted however. We have started the routine maintenance, winches first.  And when the wind allows us to sail, we have been running sailing refreshers for the leggers on board.. And there is lots of helming practice to be had. The planning also continues. The pilot books have been out, so we can look at what the prevailing wind conditions between Panama and Jamaica are likely to be, and whether there are any currents that are likely to affect us.

Given any decent wind at all, it will be an interesting dash, of about three days, to Jamaica. The race to race is also a race to get to Jamaica in time to pop down to Kingston for a day of the test.

Bruce Macky