Race 12 - Day 13
Crew Diary - New York to Derry-Londonderry
10 July
Leg 8/ Race 12/ Day 15 – July 9th
4am - With 20nm to go to the finish line a wind hole - actually more a wind-free corridor - materialise between us and the waymarker off Malin Head (that's the marker indicating a right-hand down to the finish).
For 3 hours the wind to the west of the corridor would let us sail NE but each time we tacked to resume our racing course the boat would stall as the breeze disappeared. It was like being under an evil spell in a fantasy movie ... all that we needed was a few sea monsters as extras!
Frustrating as it was our heroes battled on ... It is now 9am and we have zigzagged our way north of our waymarker and at last at a rather paltry 4 knots - because we have two knots of sea current against us - we are at last heading SE to that finish line and safe haven and a few beers in Derry!!
Day 15 crew blog part II:
It is now half two in the afternoon and the light winds have continued to follow us round and down the coast. Painfully painfully we have been making between zero and four knots towards the finish line which sometimes seems to be disappearing away from us in the other direction. We have hoisted just about every conceiveable sail or sail combo for the conditions … we are giving it everything because we are still not there and Dare To Lead are now a mere 5nm behind us.
2.9nm to the finish line and the winds at last have picked up and we are doing 7.5 knots.
… this is going to be a very hard-earned 4th place!!!!
15:54:30 – we've just finished!!!!