Diary The Big Dream

We all stay up till fiur in the morning with the spi
powering us along.We are now six miles ahead of One Hull.We have no hope of
beating them on corrected time but finishing well ahead of him is a consolation.At
04:00 a squall hits us with winds up to35 knots(8 Beaufort0.We saw it coming
and changed down to the genny.So ends Friday. Saturday 3 Dec. 08:00 We are now 235 miles from SL.As dawn breaks up
comes the red monster.We spot three new holes in it!They will be repaired when
we lower it to gybe.The wind is getting lighter,but good enough to make
progress.Our navigator,Liaroutsos,spots One Hull on AIS and tells us they are
sailing at 14 knots and closing.We find this hard to believe as the wind is
light and they never showed such turn of speed.It later transpires that the
boat in question was a steamer named POPI(!)which had an AIS code ending in
4000 ,like One Hull.They are actually 24 miles behind.We speak often with M.Stasinopoulos
the other greek boat.It is a big 72ft catamaran.They have had a bad race.they
used the engine repeatedly and gave up today to motor to SL in the light
wind.Still they are barely ahead of us.We have had problems again with the
spi.Twice we took it down to repair holes and once because the second guy broke
too!Its still up and powering us. 23;00 We are now 55miles from SL.Its dark and the
landfall is a few hours away.Ioanna and Soula are in SL and are waiting for
us.The bubbly is already on ice!a |