After making such great progress yesterday, Visit Malta Puma have slowed down, and lost some valuable mileage to the leaders of Class 1 during the night.
All is not lost, it is just she is going through the same light patch of breeze that the others passed through earlier. The good news is that it was Playing Around Logic that made up the most ground, taking some 11 miles off British Soldier and 3 miles from Encore. The yachts to the east of the course are now travelling quickest, but I think that this will steady off as they near the next mark of the course, when the yachts from the west converge and all yachts have a similar wind. Some more good news is that Puma is now 14th overall, that should give them some heart today.
The yachts are all now making some good speeds, with only British Soldier down to the 5 knot area.
News from the yachts is that is it Louise Scanlon’s birthday today on Playing Around, Happy Birthday Louise!
Playing Around Logic during the night has a slight technical issue with their engine – it is working fine, but their system alarm keeps going off when the engine is on, which means that anyone down below off watch trying to get some sleep, has to bury their head with hands over their ears to stop the noise.
We are working with the engineers at the moment to try and come up with a solution. The engines on race yachts are allowed to be used so long as they are not put into gear to propel the yacht forward. The engine is needed to charge the onboard battery system which in turn powers all the instrumentation, navigation lights, interior lights and the essential water-maker. The onboard technical team think it is just a malfunction of the alarm as everything else is working perfectly.
Both teams have now been at sea for 9 days. It is about this time when everyday tasks on board, and the watch system is becoming second nature and the thought of getting up at 2am to do a 3 hour night watch is just routine. Gone at the moment are the fierce weather conditions they encounters 3 days ago, and they have beautiful sunshine, flat seas and glorious sailing, Peter Robson, Skipper of Playing Around has said that they have been accompanied by dolphins for most of the sail from MF, and that they have watched them endlessly ‘playing around’ in the bow wave of the yacht. I can think of no better sight!
