Pirate Update-Mothers Day Edition

Position: 43,25.24N , 60,53.78W

Speed: 11 knots, Course: 127 deg.

Dear Mom,

Hope you have a great day and that your husband takes you out to lunch or dinner. Sorry I can’t be there to take you out myself.

I wonder if 47 years ago seems like yesterday to you? I can remember very vividly the days that Danny and Allie were born; 17 years ago. Seems like yesterday when you were there with Icka and me in the hospital in San Diego. I guess the moral is; “Time flies so enjoy it.”

We are slogging our way along, upwind, not making many miles in these first four days. It has been very cold, foggy, and generally miserable weather here off the north east coast. We finally got a bit of a wind shift to the left and are heading south east and getting away from the continent.

In the last 24 hours, the fleet has been spent tacking back and forth, reshuffling positions and setting up for a “lane” to take around a high pressure system that is building over Newfoundland. The choice of what “lane” to take is not easy. The closer you go to the high,-“inside lane” the shorter course you sail but you have less wind. The “further away from the center-“outside lane”-the longer course you sail but with more wind. Finding the right compromise is difficult. As you can see from the sked, Brasil is set up more to the inside (north in this case) while ABN1 and Ericsson are set up on the outside (south). The fleet will be making a 40 degree let turn over the next two days. We are in the middle so there is a good chance we won’t be first and we won’t be last in dealing with this feature.

There will be many features to deal with on this leg, many more opportunities to make gains and loses. The key is not to make any big losses early that could be impossible to recover from.

The sea is relatively smooth so the boat is not pounding as much today as yesterday. I am fairly anxious when the boat is pounding a lot because I keep wondering what will break. I guess I would rather have a slow leg with less risk of breaking and that is what it looks like we are going to have. I don’t think we will finish before the 21st, so that would be 11 days..pretty slow really.

I had hoped to come home from the Portsmouth stopover but I doubt that will be possible now with how slow the race is going. I’ll keep you posted.

Love Paul

Happy Mothers Day to all Pirate moms!