Friday, August 27, 2010
Well, another dramatic night in the awesome race has found Visit Malta Puma with head winds of up to 50 knots – a deep depression has moved south and Puma are sitting in the middle of the westerly section being buffeted about by quite strong North North Westerly winds. If this wasn’t enough, the seas will be pretty big too. The rest of the class including Playing Around Logic are at the top of the depression and facing North North Easterly winds of between 20 and 25 knots. This mans that they may just have enough of a wind angle to make a course to Muckle Flugga. Whatever direction the wind is coming from this morning, it sure it not the place you would choose to be for the start of an August Bank Holiday weekend. As everyone gets ready to take some time off, please spare a thought for our teams who are still battling out to get to the top of the British Isles. In good Bank Holiday weather fashion, it is not looking likely that they will have gentle breezes and sunshine this coming weekend!
News from Playing Around this morning is that they had some instrument problems during the night but the Mate, Graeme has managed to find the fault and everything is back up and working again. The yachts rely very heavily on the onboard instrument system, as this give vital information as to what wind angle they are sailing, what the wind speed is, what their vmg is (velocity made good) and also how quickly they are sailing. Each yacht has a set of polars, a computer generated set of figures which give the optimum boat speed a specific sail should produce, at a specific wind angle and wind speed. We use this information to see how well we are sailing against these targets, so we know if we are hitting optimum boat speed for the conditions faced. Quite technical really….
News from the fleet is that the leading yachts on the water are nearing the most North Westerly tip of Ireland, and that the rest of the Class 1 yachts have stretched out their lead against Puma during the night. As we know, sailing is always a game of win some, and then lose some, but as soon as the heavy winds start abating, I am sure that Puma will pick up her skirts again and start eating into those miles again.
All is well onboard both yachts, both teams now on boil-in-the-bag rations with fresh food now at its end. Porridge has become a firm favourite for breakfast especially now the sea and air temperature has dropped as they approach the same longitude as Norway.
