12 39 179N 039 32 108W
Fair Do's VII, Atlantic 2008....
Professor John Shepherd
Wed 3 Dec 2008 06:19
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Dear Chris,
Good morning from a light mid
atlantic!
Our position this fine morning is 12 39 179N 039 32
108W
Current:
Heading: 298 (on starboard tack)
Boatspeed: 7 knts with A2
Windspeed: 8.2knts (No squalls at all - though we were ready!)
Wind direction: 080
Historic (last 12 - 24
hours):
Heading: 235 - 310
Boatspeed: 4 knots (briefly), pretty consistently 5
knts when really light and up to about 8 with the right angle and breeze up to
10 knots (which has been infrequent)
Windspeed: 5 - 10 knots, on average about 7.5
knots
Wind Direction: again dodgy callibration does not
make this very easy at all but on this tack, lowest about 080, on other tack
highest about 154 (which was giving us a heading of 295 port tack).
Principally, we have been trying to get west by
playing the shifts, gybing onto whichever tack gives us the best angle to get
wes whilst tending to cover the south. We have resisted the urge to head below
(in terms of bearing away), or (above in terms of numeric heading) thean 293.
This has been possible for some time on port tack during the hours of 2200 -
0200, but I felt we did not want to give away the advantage of the south and
would rather focus on heading west with increased boatspeed.
We gybed back onto starboard at 0350, at which
point there were 3 boats around us, on our port side - we suspect these were
Desna, Nova One and Stormvogel. We think subsequently Stormvogel moved away from
us with her increased waterline length and sail area, but hope to overhaul
later.
How are things evolving? I was surprised how much
South there was in the breeze yesterday evening, and early this morning. This
made me wonder if things had moved quicker than expected as it seemed more like
the angle and strength we were expecting around lunch today, rather than last
night- Thoughts? At which point do you think we will have a good NE so we can
put our foot down and head for the finish.
We were delighted with the positions yesterday
which finally saw us making some decent gains on those around us. All bar
Silandra actually, and possibley Optim'x, both of which remain a threat
though they are 700 miles North - can you give us an indication of whether or
not they will suffer in the next few days? They are very close to finish in
terms of miles. Race leader, as per yesterdays positions are either P42
(Central/South), Silandra & Optim'x (both well north), followed by or
Incisor (who are South, but not as far south as us) or us - depending on how it
all pans out. Times are very close with us, Desna, Stormvogel, Nisida,
Complicity and Incisor but we have advantage, by the tiniest of margins in most
cases,
Hope all is well - P.S. we are now considering
rationing and scurvy prevention schemes having looked at the what if's and
predicted race lengths!
Regards,
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