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Powering towards Maderia
Saturday, 26 September 2009
It's been a busy few days for Tom as he heads for Maderia. The crews have been pushing the boats hard, and on Cape Breton Island this has meant some more work for the sewing machine, but they have also managed to move up the leaderboard, as Tom explains...
"Over the last two days we have had some great sailing here on Cape Breton Island Clipper, charging downwind through the Bay of Biscay under spinnaker or poled-out headsail. I had a good time helming last night, surfing down the waves in excess of 16 knots seeing no further in front of me than the mast, I really don't want to know how big the swell was!
"Our great efforts of pushing hard overnight meant we have overtaken Cork and are up into 6th place and fighting to get into the leading pack.
"Another good night of sailing could easily pull us up a few places if we can catch up with Singapore who are a little way ahead but a long way west of us, crew morale is high and we are getting better and better at helming and trimming as the days go on. It looks like we will carry on sailing downwind for another few days in great breeze making great gains towards the equator where we will inevitably park up for a few days.
"Unfortunately this morning some of the hanks on the Yankee 2 headsail broke forcing us to drop it, the sharp bits of the broken hanks then ripped three holes in the sail, we are just hoping for a day soon where we don't have to make any repairs. Katherine and Rob did a sterling job putting new hanks on and sewing strong patches over the rips so that we can use the sail again immediately.
"We are currently on a course towards Madeira, our current position puts us to the west of Portugal and we are about to get the latest position updates of the fleet. A few whales and dolphins have been sighted around the boat, but were a little too far away for any meaningful photos. The weather has been great over the last few days with plenty of wind from behind and lots of warm sunshine, night times have still been fairly warm with the temperature dropping off in the early morning. It's been so hot today that I haven't managed to sleep, instead helping out on deck, taking photos or relaxing reading a book. Phil and David have just knocked up an amazing dinner for us, I had better go and get some while there is still some left!"
posted by Hyde Sails at
21:25
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