Another day of sailing – and things are getting more interesting. The pre start weather routings were all showing more or less the same paths until Tuesday night, and most of the division 7 boats were still grouped at that moment. During the night other sail configurations were made possible and Cubaneren opted for the A5 genakker setting in pitch black darkness heading west south west – slightly south of the rumbline. The position report this morning showed that some boats must have opted for about the same configuration as us, while other boats have taken a more northerly/western course with possible genoas doing a shorter route close to rumbline – hence the very thrilling rankings of the fleet so far.
Our mysterious day 5 waypoint have been adjusted according to the prevailing winds and currently we’re still running our A5 and full main into the sunset (except there will be no sunset today either due to the clouds..).
When not sailing we’ve spent some time using our modernised sextant, also called a GPS, to figure out where we are, where our competitors are, and where we are going. Some turtles have been spotted, all birds are gone and we’ve passed the range of getting a helicopter lift back to LA if Cubaneren decides to take a Titanic on us and leave us in our life raft – named Das Tiki. The owners have finally responded to the claims following the interior damage reported a couple of days ago when the sea bunk broke leaving the crew tumbled on the floor – and today reinforced the construction guaranteeing a breaking load in excess of 0.105 tons (see picture).
And yeah, three more things:
– Thanks to Jane and Henny for sending us exciting info about both the Rosenbird and the Pacific Oceans. Discussions closed – for now.
– Thanks to Stolpestad for the very exciting dilemma. Seems like all children of the world will be killed.
– One of our followers (Kristine.) requested more information about our competitors. Unfortunately we don’t know much, but we’ve tried to summarise below. If any American fans are reading feel free to share your knowledge with Kristine and everyone else about our competitors by making a random comment on our Facebook page!
There are two Cal 40s (or in Norwegian: to kæillar på 40) chasing us. They look like a hobbit, but sails like rockstars. Typical American boat designed in the 70s we guess. They are supposed to be slightly slower than us, but have benefitted great at the start because of their genoas.
One Sabre 38. Blue hull. Similar to the Cal 40’s (kæillarne), but slightly more modern. Very fast upwind (compared to a Wasa 55 with self-tacking jib). Also genoa setup for great beating. Took the more northerly route last night, but we sailed neck on neck until such.
One 41 foot something we haven’t seen other than the position reports.
Two french comfort zones about 46 and 48 foot that seems to have struggled in the light winds ’till now.
And last, but not least, the (air)carrier (hangarskip) of our division – USS Between The Sheets. 50 feet of, so far, fast sailing.
Live slow, sail fast! Talk to you tomorrow!
