From Dorsey and Bruce Beard,
Esmeralde, Double-Handed Division
0800 Saturday. Boat speed:
0. Wind speed: 0. Do porpoises bring wind? A bunch came
by to say good morning, but didn't hang out long. No bow wave to play
with. Had a pretty good night. Wind oscillated between 255m and 240m,
with slowly decreasing pressure. Absolutely gorgeous night: crystal
clear and incredible Milky Way. Moon for a little while, which sank
brilliant orange during the darkest hours.
We
ran at 7-7.5 kts for a few hours after dark with a nice 10-12 kt breeze
from 250-255m, then gradually decreased. By 0300 we had about 6 kts
at 240m. By 0600, 3 kts. Put up the code zero which gave us an extra
knot - for all of about 10 minutes. Then it all went glassy calm.
We
have been within a few boat lengths of Misty (yawl, about 45
ft), but not close enough to smell what they are having for breakfast.
A dozen other boats scattered around, all heading different directions.
Can’t find anyone who has enough boat speed to steer. The good news
is that there is about a 1 kt current right where we want to go.
Doesn’t
matter what direction the boat is pointing: we’re headed for BDA!
Have
our little light cheater staysail on just trying to find a breeze.
Code Zero and genoa are ready to go, for whenever something is called
for.
Bruce
replaced the alternator last week, and it’s getting its first real
workout this morning. Dropped the battery bank to 65% so it's working
hard. Smells bad. $100,000 question: is it toasting, or just burning
in? Time will tell. Charge is still going in.
Overall,
very pleasant trip so far. Just hope we can get moving again soon.
About
to try to download positions to see where everyone else is (or was,
four hours ago. . . ).
1024 Saturday. Just
sailed (rather, drifted) into Navy war games. Harrier jets
circling directly overhead and landing on a carrier MUCH TOO NEARBY.
This show went on for about half an hour. Got some on video. Have just heard an announcement that live fire exercises are about to start to
the north of us. Geeze. Easterly just filled in, very light and fluky.
100m true, 6 kts. Boat
speed 4.5 - 5, code zero, 70 apparent, .5 kt fair current.
Rán’s
crew reports on their cuisine and surroundings
11
am Saturday. We've been beating in very shifty conditions the entire
morning. Right now we 13 knots from the south. All the boats in our
division are behind us with the exception of Titan XV which we
have not seen since daybreak. They were quite far east so they
can be ahead or behind, who knows? Genuine Risk sailed
past to leeward of us with an upwind Code Zero one hour ago. Lunch will
soon be served on the rail with the most fantastic sea view. I believe
we'll have Chicken Teriyaki today.
"Cooking" aboard Rán
The Chef. No,
we don't have one, but James is in charge of preparing the freeze-dried
food and with a bit of Tabasco it is actually very nice when you are
at sea. We know we had chicken teriyaki because that's what it said
on the packaging.
Champagne Sailing: 2.30 pm Saturday afternoon, close to 24 h of race. Still going 10
knots upwind, breeze coming from the south. We see far away Genuine
Risk on our port side. They crossed our bow 30 minutes ago
approximately.
We see a couple of boats on our starboard side, we Rambler and
Il Mostro (Puma). We have had the visit of fast-swimming dolphins,
too quick for pictures. The moon is just starting to show her profile.
We have a calm sea and an endless horizon. Nothing else in sight. .
. just blue water, perfect temperature, beautiful sunshine. What else
could we ask for?