East or West, That is the question.

With less than 24 hours to go until the start of the next leg of this race the forecast is here and the bets are on.

 

The race down here was fairly straight forward a few hairy moments but with good company, unfortunately having lost the laptop inverter on the first night the blog was a bit of a let down, I hope to make up for that on the return leg.

In brief we had a poor start, made up for it with the code Zero sail, went South of track, others went West. Their route was better so we lost some ground. We blew up a spinnaker in 24 kts of wind (oops) and then saw 15.6 kts of boat speed under white sail (big smile). At one point I thought we may lose the rudder and sink (more below) which focussed the mind and then sailed into 24 kts of wind in in a big confused sea (very uncomfortable) for 2 days before running out of wind completely 13 miles from the finish!

All in all Richard and I had a great race here and because of this the podium places are far from settled. I go into this leg in 4th place in class and 10th overall (out of 60).

Since arriving in Ponta Delgada the boat has undergone some repairs. During some heavy weather on the way here and around 600 miles from land I looked into the rear locker to find some very worrying flexing of the hull around the rudder stock. It kept my mind racing for a while to say the least. Having found the flexing we 'chillaxed' a bit, dropped one of the sails and carried on with a hint of caution. On arrival and further inspection it was as bad as I thought! when the boat was built it appears the laminator (builder) forgot to put in a few strengthening supports, for 10 years the boat has sailed with the fault going unnoticed, what a great time to find out!! With a bit of Glass fibre and a few man hours the boat is now the way it should have been and ready for the race home (thanks for the help Dad).

 

The weather for the return race looks ok- it may be a very slow start with some very light winds around the Azores but come Wed night or Thurs we should see an increase in wind veering to the South West. At the moment it is not quite known how much wind we will see but we could be in for a bit of a bashing- not really what I wanted but I'll just wait and see. If I get myself worried about the weather now it will taint the first part of the race.

 

The start is at 1400 UK time, as yet I am not sure weather I will be going East or West around the island but no-one else seems to be sure either! (actually most people do know but they are keeping their tactics close their chests! as am I!)

 

The pre race nerves are settling in a little now, 1250 miles of ocean open ocean and me on a boat by myself. If i wasn't nervous I don't think I would be sane!