Hi folks,
This is Angela here, the AQP onboard Dare To Lead. Today the Skip asked me to write a blog, so let me start with this:
Did you hear the joke about the boat that did an 80 nm detour to the Gulf Stream? And then the Gulf Stream wasn't there?
... Right...
But Dare To Lead wouldn't be Dare To Lead if we didn't shake our heads, recuperate and work on a plan to make our way back to the fleet. And eating away miles we have!
The crew has worked, and still is, working so incredibly hard… kite peels, Yankees up and down and... oops, sorry... up again...
After the Gulf Stream 'miss', the other current predictions seem to be correct, and aided by the wind we are doing an average of almost 90nm per 6 hours. We are literally flying over the water! And even though it is anything but comfortable, we did make up 40nm in the last 24 hours. No pain no gain!
Last night was a black night with no stars. The stable wind was around 32 knots and we were 'treated' with gusts over 45 knots. The waves were rapidly building from astern, which created amazing surfing conditions! That is when we started a speed competition and I believe our Watch Leader Steve is on top of that leader board with 24.7 knots.
Today was a slower day as we struggled with finding the right balance between the wind and waves conditions. Every time we settled on something, the conditions changed. We had the Yankee 1 up, then changed to Yankee 2, 1 reef in, then 2 reefs. When we finally sat down to have a cup of tea the conditions changed again; Yankee 1 back on deck, 2 reefs out. Then the wind dropped all of a sudden so we hoisted the Code 3 after dinner. Around midnight the wind started to back, so we dropped the Code 3 and hoisted the Yankee 1 once again.
At the moment it seems like the barometer is dropping so we might move on to the Yankee 2 and some reefs later. Never a boring day...
Our average speed is 12.5kts, the current is with us, the distance with the top five boats is getting smaller every day AND we are sailing in the right direction. 1917nm to go.
Happy days!
Cheers,
Angela & Skipper Nigel and the crew of Dare To Lead