Since I last put pen to paper yesterday as we were approaching Monserrat,
we have battled our way down the tricky coast of Guadeloupe, sailed clean
past our competitors aboard Selene, rounded Les Saintes and La Desirade and
are now on course for Barbuda. As Ben and I began our watch yesterday
afternoon with Guadeloupe in sight, we set ourselves the challenge of
making up the two mile deficit we trailed Selene by the end of our three
hours on deck. We could see the wind ahead looking patchy and fickle so we
got the binoculars on the case. With both of us having the sailed the race
several times before we knew that heading towards the shore should pay
off. As Selene sailed a straight course towards the SW corner of
Guadeloupe, we turned Dorade towards the shore and picked up a fantastic
breeze line and a significant lift. The AIS also revealed that we were now
sailing some six knots faster than our competitors and within the first
hour of our watch we had surpassed the challenge we set ourselves.
Of course navigating down that coastline can be very tricky and needless to
say it took us a long time. Somewhere in the region of eight hours to
escape the clutches of the wind hole. But we stuck to our strategy of
staying just off the beach and it paid off. A little after a spectacular
sunset, we spotted a small but distinct breeze line moving towards us from
the shore. It was enough to fill the new 'weapon sail' our windseeker and
we crawled our way past the corner and on towards Les Saintes. Zero to
seventeen knots of wind feels epic and soon enough half of us were up on
the foredeck submerged changing from the J2 to the GS and then finally to
the J4 in the lee of Les Saintes. Having a low freeboard, big sea states
can be somewhat daunting on Dorade and it felt as if we were being swamped
as we headed out of the lee of these small islands and on towards La
Desirade. We had not been looking forward to tacking our way up this leg
of the race however the wind gods dealt us a good hand and the one tack we
put in was enough to set us up on a perfect forty six mile layline.
We surfed past La Desirade not long after dawn hearing the crunch of the
waves against the rocks that mark the corner of the island and hoisted our
two A2's. One off the main mast and the second off the mizzen. For a
couple of hours we were making good speed up towards Barbuda but a vicious
squall that hit bringing with it a sudden wind shift nearly threw us into
our first ever full blown wipe out. Saved by a quick drop of the mizzen
spinnaker, the new wind direction put an end to our spinnaker fun and now
we are reaching under J2, GS, full main, mizzen jib and mizzen main.
Breakfast burritos have gone down well and we are starting to contemplate
our final leg strategy and allow ourselves to think about that cold beer at
the finish. For now we are pushing hard and aiming for that class win.
Hannah