English Corner:
12/04 - 16h23
[h=1]Tuesay, 12th, "Keeping the spinnakers in good shape is an absolute priority"[/h] We should sail down here more often ! I just spent the last hour and a half on deck in shorts and t surfing down wind with 13-15kt boat speed. Trying to plan the next move for verdes, all the GRIBs show us cutting through them, but none agree on which island to aim for 1st... plan is to stay at fastest angle possible which at the moment passes us neatly north of the 1st island. " We've got the stack in the middle of the boat right now since we are quite deep, and it makes our little ship very full in the only space we normal call 'ours'. A bit more wind, and the stack goes aft which is a relief - going faster and not having to clamber over everything to move about"
" I'd say we are getting on well, we have a happy rhythm going now, two nights ago, we both got ourselves too tired, and really pushed yesterday to get decent rests, it helped as last night was not so hard, humans are not naturally nocturnal, so you alway fight the night"
"Apart from that we are pacing ourselves really well, we are not yet 1/2 way, either in time or distance, so very conscious that we must remain vigilant to keep ourselves and the boat in good shape"
"it's looking downwind all the way to the finish, so keeping the spinnakers in good shape is an absolute priority"
"Our main chance to make up some miles is the 3 boats ahead of us splitting up slightly, which they appear to be doing, They will no longer be able to pace/push each other - so that's our chance, try to be a little % faster than them,and grind our way back up to them, but we are realistic about trying to make up a 55nm gap - it'll take time."
" It's an amazing race, the current routing takes us to 10N which is probably further south than we'd really like, but if that is what it takes, we'll be there, previous races have been to 11N so it's not that uncommon, just uncommon to be dipping down there so early in the crossing"