Hello everyone,
Almost 72 hours in the race; we should cross the finish line in a few hours, time for a quick review of this amazing race onboard Zed6.
As any race, it has it's up's and downs. For us, it started with a down as our starboard daggerboard broke minutes before the start. We thought at first that we would have to retire prematurely as we couldn't extract the broken pieces from the pit, but it eventually came off at the time of the start and we crossed the start line less than half an hour behind, no much considering the length of the race.
After rounding Antigua, we sailed flying running conditions with the large spinnaker and full main, catching up on the fleet and, most important, on our direct competitors the Newick 50 trimaran Lucky Strike, the Outremer 5X No Limit and Zenyatta, the Gunboat 62. Taking advantage of steady winds west of St Kitts and St Eustache as many in the fleet suffered erratic winds too close or too far away from the islands, we narrowed in less than 2 miles from the cats and even got barely less than 200m from Lucky Strike when rounding Saba in the first night. By then, the course consisted mainly of closed hauled legs and we suffered a lot from the missing daggerboard: the gap widened considerably.
All along the course we enjoyed very different conditions, some demanding action moments in strong breeze alternating with delicate instants of soft sailing in turquoise waters as when rounding St-Martin south-east of Anguilla, cooking hard sun and squalls. The rounding of islands were always very special moments, for the beauty of the scenery, the smell of the vegetation or charcoal burning, the tricky winds to negotiate and the gathering of the fleet. It is remarkable how more and more lonely you feel as you progress in the race.
It is mid afternoon the second day as we begin the +/- 180 NM long St-Martin-St-Barth-Les Saintes close hauled leg in 15 to 20 kt of wind. For the most part since the start , winds have been stronger than expected, though we never needed to take a reef. But strong winds is what we need to reach speed at which the absence of the daggerboard is less sensible. Here comes our second misfortune; the second one broke in its turn during that night. Although it was not even lowered half way, it failed under the pressure and the lower part bended and settled horizontally in mid waters, still attached to the part remaining in the pit. We looked at ourselves in the dark, as disappointed as the poor flying fish who just landed in the cockpit. The situation didn't show any sign of danger, so we continued sailing up to Guadeloupe where we met calm waters and a no wind zone as we arrived at sunrise along with a Class 40 and another monohull. It was a nice timing as it took us about the time for the wind to come back to retrieve the damaged appendices and resume racing. We managed nevertheless to reuse some parts to have an 80 cm long board on port side, which would be the most useful side for the rest of the race.
The third night was simply mythical: on the way up from La Dsirade to Barbuda and on to Redonda, the cat never sailed so fast for so long, with an ideal conjunction of wind force (up to almost 30kts), swell angle and adequate sails allowing for loooooong fast and somehow scary surfs under a shiny moon but also at some point sinister squalls. We didn't sleep much but covered in 10 hours the same distance as in the previous 18. Now we head close hauled for the finish line, much slower and a bit tired, but very happy for what we consider already a fantastic experience.
These were all exceptional moments that will never forget. No maybe (*)
Thank you Gerald for making this possible, and the RORC of course.
Cheers,
Olivier.
(*) Brussels slang
Pictures:
Retrieving the damaged port daggerboard in calm waters west of Guadeloupe on day 2
Second night in the race: port daggerboard failure, it is seen bended horizontally in mid waters.
Ideal catamaran sailing: 15kt wind speed, reaching, flat turquoise waters, 29C, broad sunshine.
The canal between St-Martin and Anguilla
