News from the fleet
SV Esperança: Today started lively around here. Right at the 07:00 GMT watch change we heard a loud bang, and it took us about 10 seconds to realize that the spinnaker halyard cover had run, causing the kite to drop about 2 meters from the masthead.
The maneuver then was to switch from the A4 to the A0, which is the correct sail for a solid breeze already around 25 knots. The risk was the cover jamming in the mast or in the deflectors above the cabin, leaving the spinnaker half-hoisted and stuck. The solution was to remove the cover from the line to avoid this very likely jam.
The maneuver worked, we hoisted the A0, kept surfing the waves, and already hit 17.7 knots of speed.
A small tear opened near the tack of the A4 because it ended up catching on the bowsprit. We are here repairing the A4 and sewing the broken halyard, which will go back to its place as the spare.
We are currently in 3rd place on corrected time and 2nd relative to the finish line.
In 1st on corrected time in ORC is Angel Wings, who, even with a broken boom, are still doing an excellent job.
We are a little over 700 miles from Cabo Frio, and soon we will be on the Brazilian coast. In fact, we are already in Brazilian waters, as Trindade Island secures this territory for our country.
Have a great Sunday everyone!!!
SV Vineta: OK…enough about the endless gybes…time to move on to a different subject…
Wildlife has been surprisingly sparse on this race. Yes, we have seen birds every day, and flyingfishes, but not in the numbers I usually expect, but before the Greenies out there get all excited about climate change, overfishing, etc, etc, let me just say that every transatlantic I have done, since the 1985 Cape to Uruguay Race, has been different. If anything, there seems to be a correlation between the abundance of sea life and the status of El Nino / La Nina. This year is just a quiet year. having said that, yesterday we passed about 150 miles south of Trinidade Island (not to be confused with Trinidad), and suddenly there were a lot mnore birds around. Not surprisingly we did see a few Trinidade Petrels, which only breed on Trinidade Island. We also had a Masked Booby fly close by, and during the night a Brown Noddy tried to land on Wolf while he was helming! This is also not particulary unusual, as the Noddies commonly land on boats at night and are very unafraid of humans! This mornings sighting was of a Brown Booby, cousin of the Masked Booby.
Day’s run yesterday was 222 miles. Our third best of the voyage, so far. Today we ticked of another 215 miles.
Aside from the birds, two ships also showed up on the AIS (Automatic Identification System). The Bokm Ningbo and the YM Serenity were both en route towards Brazil, but too far away to be seen with the naked eye.
