Friday, August 27, 2010
A 1pm call from Playing Around Logic this afternoon finally made me realise that they are all quite, quite mad! Peter explained that they were having the best sail ever, under beautiful sunny skies, whooshing along in a good 11/12 knots North Easterly breeze, with dolphins playing around the bow, everyone back on top form after seasickness, and that the day was good. He then went on to say that they had seen Albatross and Penguins but hadn’t spotted the Polar Bears yet….mmmmm….I will let you draw your own conclusions to all of that! They can’t even blame it on alcohol as both boats are sailed dry. But what it does mean is that everyone onboard Playing Around are having the best of times, and thoroughly enjoying every second of it. The yacht had a good night and made some small inroads into the leading 2 yachts Encore and British Soldier and put more distance between themselves and 4th place Cheeki Rafiki, so that is good news. They are now, at 1700 hrs BST, still rolling along at 6.5 knots and have only 35 miles approx to go before they round Muckle Flugga.
You may have noticed on some of the blogs that the Skippers tend to have different ways of spelling this infamous place. I have checked and it is Muckle Flugga but there some definite other translations for it!! Answers on a postcard please!
Back on Visit Malta Puma, spirits are high, and they have so very nearly overhauled Change of Course that is it just too exciting! They have just 4 miles to gain on them and then they will be off the bottom of the leader-board and on their way upwards– go Puma go!! I know they can do it, and so do they and are working really hard to catch them. Winsome is only another 23 miles after that – easy!! The weather is so much better than last night, so they are taking the opportunity to dry some clothes and make some bread.
Visit Malta Puma is some 153 miles behind Class leaders Encore, who we think are sailing a brilliant race. Most would think this was an unassailable lead, but we remember back in 2008 on the RORC Madeira race when Puma was sparring with Pen Azen – at one point they were over 160 miles behind them and they still came out on top, so anything is possible……
At the front of the fleet, the leaders are now well down the west coast of Ireland and reaching speeds of 20 knots and more – amazing! I wonder if they have seen any penguins!!!
Keep the messages coming, they are a real boost to both teams, and any jokes are always a bonus!!
Allie Smith
