Financial Crisis 29 Oct- Heading for Tristan da Cunha

First of all big congratulations to Ross and Campbell Field, and to Halvard Mabire and Miranda Merron for their first leg achievement, all winners in my eyes for their display of experience, determination and skill in negotiating their route to Cape Town.

We have turned the corner, I feel, in this endless leg to Cape Town, our sails are finally free, we are heading towards Tristan da Cunha which we intend to leave well to port before progressively curving in towards Cape Town. Boat speed is in the nines and tens and should get in the regular tens once the wind frees a little bit further. This is a welcome change form the beating first and light winds after of the past 2 weeks. With the the loss of the wind instruments the sailing has been a laborious time consuming full time occupation, you have two choices, trim the sails and helm, or use the autopilot on a straight line and trim the sails accordingly. I find both occupations extremely tedious, investing all my lifetime savings to occupy myself as a low qualified shift worker, 12 hours a night shining a torch to a freaking tell tale on the sail cursing the damn thing and the phosphorescence which is the only other living thing you can engage conversation with here in no man’s land…

When the wind is more regular i do admit to watching a bit of tv throguh the companion way on the pc screen, I finished Breaking Bad series 3 and I’m now on Series 2 of Deadwood.

The routeing has created a split, with Sec Hayay, Phesheya and us in the south and Cessna in the north. As discussed a few days ago there are two possible routes to Cape Town around a high pressure in our path. We had to chose whether to follow Cessna and try to catch up, or cover our 4th position from an attack from Phesheya. We have chosen the latter as it had the added advantage of
taking us to the downwind route as opposed to the long beat that awaits Cessna which still needs to be proven as the faster overall option.

Posted by: First Class Sailing