Hello Again Friends
After blasting off from the start and then parking up and drifting in the Gulf Stream, we managed to again find a completely windless area of the North Atlantic, where we drifted for all of Saturday, making a grand total of 20 miles progress toward the finish. We were stuck in this warm eddy north of the Gulf Stream with adverse current and absolutely no wind. Position reports indicated that others to the west of us had some wind and were able to keep going. We had lost a lot of time to the fleet. Finally, at 4AM this morning, the breeze came up out of the northeast. We are back in business and charging the remaining 180 miles to the finish at a good 12 knots. But alas I fear it is too late to recover all that lost time while we wallowed about.
So, it looks like we are going to receive a thorough drubbing from our Class 5 competitors on this leg, It is easy to look back and wish we had made different moves. We really got behind the eight ball when we ran out of wind in the middle of the Gulf Stream and were forced by the current about 60 miles to the east. After that, we needed wind to get back in the game, and we found none on Saturday. Other boats further to the west consolidated their gains. At this point, we are pouring it on for the finish line, but I think it is too little too late.
I will save the post mortem for another day, as it is never entirely clear what happened until the race finishes. Brian and I have been keeping each otheršs spirits up, and it is very nice to be back in the breeze. We are looking at an ETA in Newport of late tonight if this wind holds, which is the forecast.
I hope everyone is enjoying a lovely Sunday and we are looking forward to our return to terra firma tonight.
Joe
