2010 Race Commentary

A Longtail visits Steven Thing on the communications-safety boat Comfort 

0545, Tuesday.  34 12.6m N  66 20.6m W.
Went on deck about 0430 for the air and to witness sunrise.  The early dawn light was the background to sharp-edged tropical cumulus clouds to the east.  It was easy to see the profile of an ancient sailor, leaning back asleep, probably snoring as his mouth was open. Just before the light broke through the low clouds in the distance, the big tropical cumulus clouds to our west became bright pink-orange.  Almost looked like they were a reflection of the pink sand of Bermuda.

After the sunlight broke through, the western clouds were spectacular against the light blue background.  Some of the clouds seem to be throwing off some rain.  Just then a Bermuda Longtail came along and followed us for a few minutes, getting quite close, almost like he wanted to land.

A visit from a Longtail is said to bring good luck. Think he was taking a ride off the updraft from our sails, as he just hovered for the longest time without moving his wings.  He then flew off to the west and we noticed a rainbow.  After a bit, we noticed a double rainbow with the color sequence reversed from the main rainbow.  The gentle sea, steady winds, light blue background, big white puffy clouds, the rainbows, and the Longtail made for a special moment in our voyage.

0930 Tuesday, 33 31.5N, 65 45.1W. The good news is that this is gorgeous sailing. Twelve to 14 knots of steady breeze at 70-80 degrees apparent.  We've been rolling along comfortably at 7.5-8.5 knots for more than 30 hours.  Sunny and pleasant during the day, cool and moonlit, then starlit milky way, at night.  What could be wrong?

Oh: I forgot.  The foul current.  Almost from when we exited the Gulf Stream we've been plagued by 1.0-1.5 knots of foul current.  Some from the east, some from the south – but foul every which way. We stayed to the west because, well, we were supposed to stay to the west.  We expected mixed current down here below the stream, some foul, some not, but we didn't expected such persistent and strong stuff against us for so long.  Even now, it's still .5-.75 knots foul.

More good news: we're in good company. Next Boat, the Morris 45 owned by Mark Ellman, is rolling along to leeward of us, gradually pulling by.  And he won the DH division a few years back in his little Morris 36.  What's he doing over here?  Same thing we are, I guess. I imagine the mood there is similar to the mood here.

Our main competitors – Lora Ann, Paladin, Great Scot, and Kiva – are all to the east and ahead by 30+ miles, right on the rhumb line.  Yesterday morning they were closer to the finish by 20-25 miles, but we thought we had a chance of catching up, with our westerly position and more favorable reaching angle.  We weren't counting on this current, and as the day went on and it didn't subside, we could only hope that they were getting foul current also.

Doesn't look like they did get the bad current.  We just looked at the 0400 position reports and their boat speed averages are much higher than ours.  While we've been sailing at 7.5-8.5 knots, we're only making good 6.5-7.  They’re making good 8-9.  So not only is the current not setting them back, they've got enough wind to move fast. 
Oh well. Bermuda, here we come. 

0800 Tuesday, about 190 miles NW of Bermuda. Winds Southwest at 10 to 12 knots. Currents, currents, currents. Missing when you want them, there when you don’t. 

Ever since clearing the Gulf Stream we’ve had about 1 to 1.5 knots of current against us where there shouldn’t be any. . . at least not by any of the charts, maps, or reports we’ve seen. We knew we’d have some unfavorable ones between the Stream and Bermuda, but not almost ALL the way. So we decided to scrap our plan to sail farther west (since it was based on avoiding currents in an eddy) and to just head straight for Bermuda.

The winds held up well all night, and our boat speed was pretty good. We’re not really tracking other boats but if they have the same bad currents we do, then we probably had a decent night. We haven’t seen another boat in about 24 hours. It has been very nice weather. Quite warm, but not oppressively tropical, which is what it was like in the Stream itself. Shorts and tee shirt weather. So far we’ve been almost hard on the wind the entire way.

We’ve settled into a good routine, and are finally into the watch schedule enough to wake up rested. A couple of large ships have passed across our bow and stern during the last day. They always look much more imposing out here than they do in a channel at home. It’s probably because you can more easily predict their path at home and be assured you are out of harm’s way.