Hello World!
I’m writing to you from the top of our trip. We just entered the Pentland Firth, a famous stretch of water between the Atlantic Ocean and the North Sea, renown for its fast flowing tides, that can reach 12 knots at spring tides.
The last 48 hours have been very lively to start with. Not long after the start of our race, on Monday night, the wind built to gale strength, once more telling us that the weather forecast area of Rockall is not a place to tread lightly. Sea state grew to highly uncomfortable levels, trying to flip all 'resting' (if you could) people out of their bunks. Those on deck were constantly doused with vast loads of salt water while holding on tightly, and when work had to be done on the foredeck, crew were launched in the air or flushed afterwards.
Luckily it only lasted ‘til Monday afternoon, whereafter the elements took a more civilised form and wind reduced to a pleasant fresh breeze. Yesterday saw us re-hoisting our repaired Yankee 2, but unfortunately it created a split in an old repair near the top of the sail. We were able to get it down reasonably quickly without any further damage and replaced it for our trusty work kite, the Code 3. We flew this until about an hour ago.
Now we are goose-winged (where the foresail is set on one side and the mainsail on the other, like bird’s wings) through the Pentland Firth, punching last of the tide before it will turn in an hour and flush us out on the other side into the North Sea. There a new game starts: Dodging Oil Rigs, Shoals and Wind Farms... The joys of sailing in our modern local waters.
Well, stay tuned... most likely one more blog to go, before we end the race off Southend Pier, hopefully on July 29.
Tot overmorgen