It’s Cold Up North!!

As the south of Britain descends into Monsoon like conditions, our yachts in the Round Britain & Ireland Race have been having relatively better weather today, but it is still hard going.

You may have noticed that Playing Around Logic are now in Class 1, where they should have been since the start of the race – it was an error of the Race organisers which had them on the incorrect handicap. Now all is resolved and they are battling it out with Encore and British Soldier for the podium positions in Class 1. Peter has called in today to let us know that all is well onboard and that they are working hard to go as fast as they can. Morale is high, but they say it’s cold up North….. The wind has dropped further since this morning which can be seen by the drop in boat speed by all in Class 1. This is potentially good news for Puma, as if they can hang on to some wind and keep up good boat speed they will be able to start eating up the deficit in distance between them and the rest of the fleet.

The weather forecast is looking very interesting. Playing Around have moved further east and have come away from hugging the coast and re-joined the main pack on the rhumb-line to Mukkle Flugga. British Soldier is now ahead on the water and on handicap, but the wind ahead is looking light and fickle for the next 6 hours so it will be interesting to see the schedules in a few hours time to see which tactic is working.

Meanwhile, Visit Malta Puma have gained a little on the pack but have made a decision to head west further to the coast to find the Southerly wind that may give them a speed advantage over the boats ahead. A southerly breeze means that they can put up the spinnaker, and this means greater boat speed. The weather over the next few days will be quite crucial to Puma’s chance of gaining on the fleet. The wind is predicted to get stronger in the far North towards Muckle Flugga, and go Northerly which means that the leading yachts in class will be hard on the wind, making sailing conditions uncomfortable and seas rough. However they then start to turn westerly the further south you go, which is great for Puma, as they will not be hard on the wind and will have a faster point of sail. There is hopefully then going to be a great opportunity for them to claw back some of those lost miles. Let’s just keep our fingers crossed that the weather is kind to all…..

News from the fleet is that the 2 Volvo 70’s have now rounded Muckle Flugga at the top of the Shetland Isles and are now on their way to the next mark of the course off the North Tip of the outer Hebrides. Lucky them!!

Dinner tonight is Home-made Chicken Cacciatore on Playing Around and Chilli with rice on Puma…yummy!

I also have a confession to make to Puma – their cheese was left behind in the fridge in the stores at Shamrock Quay…oops, sorry guys!!!

Allie