The race has been fast and furious for the first couple of days culminating in our arrival into the Pentland Firth. The tides couldn’t have greeted us any better at this potentially treacherous location where up to 12 knots of current is listed in the almanac.
I had told my team and supporters that the race would more than likely be decided by the north-east corner. This is because the Pentland Firth tides potentially act as a gate, splitting the fleet.
On this occasion however, in Race 15, the forecast has ruined that idea. We currently lie in first place but I fear the huge high pressure forecast along the east coast for hundreds of miles may cause a shake up of race positions.
As we currently drift at 3 knots I fear boats behind will be dramatically catching up at over double our speed. All we can do now is try and place ourselves into the best location for the breeze and hope we start making good progress before those behind us catch up. The race is still anyone’s.
I had hoped to work a lead up to this part which would help. At a time in the race when we should be able to get rest and relax, here in this final race the strain is on to ensure a good result. The stress is further increased by the great progress we have made in the first half.
We have had some great racing with WTC Logistics and particularly Unicef who have, next to us, led the race up to this point. Well done. I commend Ian for his great leadership, safety and racing. Top man, top Skipper, let’s hope we can keep ahead of the catching, chasing pack for another few hundreds miles or so.
I want to thank all our supporters and all the Qingdao team that couldn’t be with us on this leg. We are trying really hard to bring it home for all you guys too. Let’s hope lady luck smiles down upon us and finds us some pressure to get out of this wind hole and into some new breeze...
Signing off whilst heading back to the deck to ask... How can we make the boat go faster??