Found a Bit of a Grove

Finally found a bit of a grove here. We seem to have the correct sail up and our speed is good against Ericsson and ABN AMRO TWO, both of whom we can see.

It is only blowing 14 knots from 205 and we are all reaching on our big masthead reachers. The other bit of really good news is that we were able to sort out our problem with the bowsprit tack lines so no issue with being able to change from one spinnaker to another.

Last night we just could not seem to choose the correct sail for the conditions. The conditions were changing a bit on the back side of the front and we had a lot of trouble with all of our changes. Hopefully we can stay “in phase” with the wind and execute well from now on.

Everyone on the Pearl has pushed hard in the first 24 hours, staying on deck longer than the normal four hours to give a hand to sort things out. Today we are catching up on our sleep now that we have got things settled.

The forecast is off right now on wind speed… we have less. But tonight the forecast is for the wind to increase again to 25. Basically for the new three days, the forecast is pretty much the same, 17-25 knots from 200-210. That should make this a fairly fast trip, not record breaking but good.

Movistar sailed real well last night, probably not changing their spinnaker at all. Changes are costly especially if you pick the wrong one so the mantra of “if it aint broken, don’t fix it” applies here. The fleet is spread out a bit now with Brasil 1 20 miles north of us and Ericsson and ourselves in the south. The forecast of today doesn’t show much difference in wind between north and south. That could change.

PC

Pirates of the Caribbean