Today there's a real feeling of deja vu. Once again awoken by the
boat cavitating over the waves as 8 tonnes of yacht lifts and turns
into a surf board. The roar of water and the screams of joy on the
deck as the boat pushes past previous records and on to 19.92 knots.
Once again Andreas at the helm. When I came up there's a mood of
delight as he leaps in front of me and taunts me that the record is
his! Although he came on as a bowman, there's no doubt Andreas has
talent and like the other younger crew members has done nothing but
sail... Sailing is their life, their passion and their job.
Andreas has been working in the US for a charity linked to sailing and
is soon embarking on a M32 campaign with some friends. He's very
experienced at foiling, where the sail boat lifts on a hydrofoil out
of the water so extreme speeds can be achieved and doing this crossing
I did wonder how long it will be before someone “foils” across the
atlantic far faster than a ship or power boat could do it.
We've done over 1,000 miles now under A sail and without a gybe or
tack. The boat seems familiar healed to port and we're all used to
the noise of rushing water past the hull. We know in a few days
though that will change. This morning was thick thick fog. You
could see about 80 metres in all directions and we knew from AIS there
were various ships near us. Good thing they could see us on their
AIS too.
Route planning is getting very stressful for Rob. Out of the models
we are downloading, they show a preference to go North to avoid the
high pressure ahead but this adds huge distance what we must sail.
How much do you trust a particular forecast and how far out can it be
accurate? So we're taking a middle ground but for those following the
tracker, this demonstrates why Teasing Machine and others have sailed
over 100 miles North of us. They're faster so they get impacted
harder by the high pressure whilst the slower boats behind can take a
more direct route on a new depression coming across the Atlantic.
We're close to 1200 miles to the finish, just a couple of Fastnet
races!!!
Food planning is getting tighter.... I'm trusting this PC Routing
software to get it right that we don't go hungry... Off to serve up
Lentil soup and pizza pieces.
Chris Hanson on Pata Negra... wondering how I get my record back?