News from the fleet
SV Vineta – Since I last wrote things have changed a bit aboard Vineta.
The logbook starts off with the usual gybe, gybe, gybe story, but early yesterday a ship called the KN Arcadia made a brief appearance on the horizon and an equally brief mention in the logbook!
Our day’s run yesterday was 216 miles, which also seems to be our standard day’s run!
In the afternoon we changed time zones once again, so now we are on Rio time at last!
By evening the wind began to increase and veer more north, meaning no more gybes but instead a change from the A2 spinnaker to the A6, and later, during the night, to the Jib Top. By the time we had made that change we were in the thick of the Brazilian Campos oilfield, with rigs, ships, support vessels, etc, all around us.
This morning dawned with continuing strong breeze but with Wolf eager to hoist the J2 in addition to the Jib Top. As I write, he is eagerly getting it on deck, so I guess I best sign off now and give him a hand…
A while back I left you with Wolf eagerly dragging the J2 on deck to be hoisted…This was quickly achieved and for a while we were averaging 17 knots boat speed with Liv at the helm. Theo briefly topped out at 19 knots while he was on the helm. At that speed the first land, Cabo Frio, rapidly came into view, and soon the breeze eased off and veered in the shelter of the headland. This necessitated some more quick sail changes: Jib Top down, A2 up, J2 down.
Our day’s run has been a very satisfactory 264 miles. Our second best of the race!
Right now things are very sedate. 13 knots of wind. Flat sea. Sunshine. Full main and A2. Slowly veering wind. A couple more gybes expected before the finish. Waiting for the afternoon sea breeze to fill in.
Felix is ‘pickling’ the watermaker (putting it into storage mode). Theo at the helm. Wolf trimming sails. Liv taking a break from the beating sun. And I am doing navigator stuff…
27 miles to go. 2 gybes done in the last two hours! How many gybes can one boat do in one race?!
Next gybe coming shortly…gotta go!…
Anyway, beautiful day here and lovely scenery along the coast. The first time I have sailed this section of coastline with so much wind! Usually it is flat calm!
OK…gybing in 3…2…1…
