Race 12 - Day 9
Skipper Report
05 July
Hello Team,
How are we this “Raining” Thursday. Still enjoying the heat and living the sporting dream of Wimbledon and the World Cup? This end we have rain, yes rain proper stuff, not just a heavy downpour from a squall normal rain, we must be getting near home. The amount of times we have had normal steady rain on this whole trip is very small. So it was somewhat bad skills from my part as a Skipper, that when the rain started, I had no urgent navigation or administration to attend to. Instead it was foulies on, join the watch on deck and get wet. Now I have come down to do my blog (O4.45Z) it’s stopped raining and there is a hint that the dawn is on its way to our front.
Sailing wise, we are under kite and with the north pack of the fleet. Although, as is the norm for the GREAT Britain team, we are doing our own thing and not heading quite as north as some of the others. The day started with some light winds but over the course of the day, the winds have picked up and continued to gently veer. We are currently getting 21kts of breeze from south south west. We are expecting the wind to veer some more yet. At the moment I think the big weather issue is not what we are expecting to get over the next 24-48 hours. With approximately a 1000 nm to go, the big question is, is the high predicted to develop over the UK on Sunday/Monday going to do so and if so how big will its area of influence be? That is potentially going to be a leaderboard changer. The big strategic question now is where to position the boat to best deal with the last couple of days of the race.
We have seen dolphin and whales today, well them blowing as they broke surface to breathe, apart from that it’s been pretty routine. Well now that I think of it that's not quite correct. Ishbel's brownies have clearly had an influence over those doing Mother duty, so not to be out done on the cooking front. Sarah and Julie were on duty in the galley today and disappointingly served wraps for lunch (two days running), but excelled at dinner. We had garlic bread, yes bread and garlic to accompany our “spag bol”. Then boat trifle, tinned fruit, cake and wait for it Lizzie Tricks – custard!!! Outstanding. You see Ishbel, when you put that container of brownies into your Dad's kit you had no idea that you would inspire some great cooking on the GREAT Britain boat, awesome, well done you.
So here are Thursday's stats to chat over while you drain the last water out of the dispenser, that will be still water clearly with the current storages ashore. As at 1400 hrsZ 04078 24hr Distance Run, 202 nm (average 8.4 kts, a new low) of which 167 nm (83%) was DMG. The DTA was 1187 nm and on a positive note our highest recorded speed to date on this race is 18.6 kts. Oh did you know, a strand from the web of a golden spider is as strong as a steel wire of the same size? Only half of all spiders use webs for catching prey. The others use … other methods.
Self indulgent moment now, well done Nick on passing your final theory papers in Flight School, with a 91.5% average – one proud Dad and looking forward to seeing you in Derry- Londonderry.
Standing by this Channel-out
Dave