I'd love to tell you all about it, but we are in Stealth Mode...
Well, alright then, but don't tell anyone. As Phil would say (literally stopped from typing by the sound of a deck frog) - yes that's him. I was saying, as Phil would say, he's great at keeping secrets, it's his friends that let him down. I digress. Donna Von Tunk has been consistently ace with the spinnaker.
We took a ‘round the outside’ route to avoid the windholes. We did encounter several ourselves, but probably made up the distance it took in slightly better speeds. It's not been a blaze of glory comeback, the consistent 11 knots I'd hoped for, but I think we are ahead of two with a possible third boat in sight.
The next will be Seattle, but our windholes may have made them a reach too far. Which is annoying because they're my goal. I want them and we will do everything we can. GoToBermuda is just ahead of them too. We just need more speed and more power please.
We'll keep trying it won't be in vain. Few more hours rest when we get there and time with partners, family, and friends, and Charley's there to see me. :)
It's a short stopover and we haven't been arriving behind other boats before. In Race 1, we came third, but we had led pretty much the whole time barring going for a score gate and sacrificing so we were only just outside when first and second went in. This time we could be a day behind the race leaders. If there's going to be a wind shutdown or two you don't want to win the first and lose the last. It's just the wrong way round to do it.
The team is fiercely competitive, so, I'm not sure how not being at the front is going to sit. I think a big shape up is required (with regards to how we can improve) in order to avoid this happening again, so we can move forward. Also, we’ll take a look at the team objectives.
I need to confirm that it is indeed the will of the team, as I wouldn't want to drive performance if there is any doubt. If it is, I have a number of suggestions for how we can improve moving forward.
Sailing is a great sport. It's hugely rewarding. It pays dividends to hard work and diligence. There's always things you can improve and they're usually quite obvious. I'm looking forward to having these conversations with everyone once we are off the boat so we can reset, define our objectives, and go into the next races with even more positivity and lessons from our defeat.
In the end, we have been hugely unlucky in this race to get blocked completely from exiting the foul current. But this is a great learning experience and can highlight many other ways we can improve that we may not have focused on.