Mike Slade writes:
"Hi All,
Any ideas that this race was a holiday jaunt out of Antigua have now been binned! A cracking start into heavy seas soon dispelled any thoughts of an easy trip. A great fetch to Barbuda with boat speed around 20 knots soon had us well in the lead. But the angle and strength of breeze played into the hands of the Trimaran, who we closely followed around the top mark and stayed in sight all the way down to Nevis VMG running. As expected the trimaran soon disappeared over the horizon leaving us to enjoy a fabulous evening sail along the southern coast of Nevis and St Kitts. Flat water and 20 knots plus boat speed was as good as it ever gets and the reason why we were keen to support this RORC initiative around what is undoubtedly one of the best yacht race tracks in the world. A busy night weaving through the islands of St Barths and St Maartin with the crew getting no rest as we went through many sail changes. We are now half way through the long leg down to Guadeloupe passing close to Montserrat at this moment. Sadly no chance of a kite as we remain firmly on the wind all the way to Il De Saints - Bugger.
Current boat speed 16 knots in 20 knots of breeze at a TWA of 60 degrees, it is a hard bumpy ride and unlikely to change much until we round the bottom of Guadeloupe in 60 odd miles. Hoping to finish on Wednesday morning and setting the inaugural monohull race record of under 48 HRS.
This time my porridge has tropical fruit in it, not surprising as it was bought in Antigua but much prefer a rum punch.
Mike"
