Visit Malta Puma are tonight at the 7pm schedule, just 11 miles from taking the first scalp since having to turn back and effect repair on Tuesday night…..Change of Course is in their sights and they are determined by the end of the evening to have them!!
Next to go is Winsome only another 1.5 miles ahead and then some 40 miles further is Beluga….
They are in an area of light winds at the moment, but still able to keep moving in the right direction. The yachts ahead have slowed again, and the wind has gone North Easterly making it hard for them to lay a direct course to Muckle Flugga. This may play to Visit Malta’s advantage if she can keep moving and the predicted weather in their own area stays southerly. Keep everything crossed!! Slowly but surely at every hourly schedule, Puma is making headway against the rest. In 9 hours they have taken 9 miles off leading yacht Encore, 12 miles off Cheeki Rafiki and 25 miles from Playing Around Logic, their team mates. Most importantly, they have gained some 10 miles from their arch rivals, British Soldier.
Meanwhile developments at the top of Class 1 find Encore being headed but Playing Around and British Soldier able to keep their rhumb line course direct to the next mark. This means that although Encore are 22 miles ahead of Playing Around, if they cannot sail directly towards Muckle Flugga with the wind that they have, then the others will start to catch them quickly…..go Peter go!!!!
Back at Sailing Hw today, we have been inundated with messages of support for both team, so keep them coming, they are such a huge morale booster for all onboard, and they really appreciate every last word – send them through to allie@sailinglogic.co.uk.
The crew blogs that have come from the yachts today have been extremely interesting and very moving, It is often difficult to imagine what life is like onboard a racing yacht in a race such as this. It is 3 times the distance of the Sydney-Hobart Race and also 3 times the distance of the Fastnet Race. It is the longest offshore race in the world that doesn’t cross an Ocean….Life onboard becomes a routine of sleeping, eating and sailing, and then it all repeats itself, again, and again, and again!! The teams are split up into watches, and each watch spends a certain number of hours sailing the yacht whilst the rest of the crew are sleeping or cooking meals or cleaning the yacht. Cleanliness is of upmost importance. 10 people living in a confined space probably no bigger than people’s bedrooms is a lot of bodies. If anyone succumbs to an infection or a virus, it is very easy to pass it on to everyone else, so cleanliness is the top priority down below. As well as the toilet paper being rationed, so is everything else onboard, Both our teams have water-makers onboard which are basically small desalination plants, where sea water is collected and then filtered producing fresh water. This can only be done when the engine is running, so at the same time as water is been made the batteries are also being charged so that the instruments can be used and the computer can be charged so that weather GRIB files and navigation software can be used to help the Skipper decide on tactics and where to point the yacht. Fresh water is always rationed and tanks kept full just in case of a water-maker problem – you don’t want it to fail when you have no water left at all. Food is packed in daily packs, so that there should be enough food for a 14 day race, come what may. Fresh food is limited as there is no refrigeration on either yacht, and showers are non-existent, Thank goodness for the invention of baby wipes!
We are sad to hear of another retirement today which means that they are only 22 yachts still racing after 28 started. As they say, you have to be in it to win it, and our 2 yachts are still in it, and are working 110%.
Allie Smith
