Bobbing and Creeping along at only 3-5kts
With much lighter winds than previously during this voyage, ASOLARE has mostly been bobbing and creeping along at between 3-5kts. However, even this slow speed was only achievable following Jonathan's visit to the top of the mast allowing us to fly both an Asymmetric Spinnaker and ballooner to port and a poled out Genoa to starboard.
Yesterday afternoon we listened to the SSB Radio Net 'Position Reporting' and discovered that a vast number of Yachts had opted for extensive motoring hours due to the light winds. One yacht reported using over 16hours of engine in the last 24hours! Other than 40mins of engine right at the beginning of the race we have not used our engine so our actual position could be far better than that reported on the ARC web-site once all the engine penalties are taken into consideration.
The interesting thing about the current weather conditions is that the weather favours the Yachts towards the back of the fleet and hinders those at the front. Thus we may find that the fleet becomes more compact rather than remaining spaced out!
As crew we remain in good spirits despite the lack of speed, and we were particularly happy yesterday when we crossed paths with an Italian Yacht on a different tack. Later last night we again spotted the Italian yacht on the Radar and, after tracking her, realised that we would be overtaking her during the night. Preparations were made to play Rule Britannia very loudly using the Bose-Hull-Theatre-Sound system via the yachts 'loud-hailer' attached to our mast. There was much hilarity as the crew investigated how best to achieve maximum sound ready for our victorious overtake! Unfortunately the Yacht changed it's course dramatically so our moment of glory will have to wait until we spot our next target.
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