{"id":317,"date":"2012-05-22T11:43:12","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T11:43:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/?p=317"},"modified":"2012-05-22T11:43:12","modified_gmt":"2012-05-22T11:43:12","slug":"leading-the-fleet-in-the-wake-of-tropical-storm-alberto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/leading-the-fleet-in-the-wake-of-tropical-storm-alberto\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading the fleet in the wake of tropical storm Alberto"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Atlantic storm<\/p><\/div>\n

Last night was tough, in fact some of the worst we’ve seen in the entire
\nrace. After we left Charleston we received a warning of an approaching
\ntropical storm with winds potentially up to 55knots, the night was
\napproaching and we had already reduced sail to 3 reefs and the staysail…
\nwe had a tough decision to make, keep going and cross the path of the
\ntropical storm or head inshore and hopefully avoid the worst of the winds.
\nThe question played in my mind over and over, the sea state was
\ndeteriorating very fast and i had to chose among the lesser of two evils,
\nstronger winds offshore or the risk of breaking waves in shallow waters
\ninshore.
\nI decided to head offshore as i thought in big winds i could always ride
\nthe storm with plenty of room towards the south, but once in shallow
\nwaters it would have become difficult to get out of the waves. There was
\none more complication, the timing of the storm was crucial, if we had
\nreached the gulf stream, which flows to the north-east, against the full
\nblow of storm the seas could become horrendous: wind against tide makes
\nfor very steep dangerous breaking waves.
\nThe wind built to a peak of steady 40 knots but we had occasional gusts of
\nnearly 50 knots. We wanted to preserve the boat and avoid damage so as the
\nstorm worsened we kept sailing lower or even occasionally downwind.
\nWe monitored the progress of the rest of the fleet and they didnt seem to
\nbe doing much better on the other tack so we kept going offshore hoping
\nthe storm would subside before the gulf stream but leaving us in its
\nstrong flow in the aftermath with a chanche to make big gains on the
\nothers. Luckily the timing was just right, as we reached the warm flow of
\nthe gulf stream the winds had dropped below 30 knots and although the seas
\nwere very confused they were not dangerous, only occasionally a wave came
\nright in our path and we lept in the air and fell like no more than a
\nlittle dinghy being dragged in the surf.
\nToday the wind kept decreasing and the seas calming down, everything is
\nback to normal and we are now dealing with the opposite problem, lack of
\nwind. The forecast is for very light airs for the next 24-36 hours which
\nwill make for some further interesting tactical decision.
\nI cant deny that last night, during the worst, only a very very small part
\nof me was thinking about the race, we were simply making sure we’d get
\nthrough the blow with no damage but i’m glad i stuck to my guns and headed
\ntowards the gulf stream.
\nWe had done a very conservative start inside Charleston Harbour, I wasnt
\nsure what winds to expect on our way out and I didnt want to have any
\nproblems whilst sailing in the narrow channel through the breakwaters, the
\nresult was however that by the time we were in clear waters we were last
\nand as in every single leg of the race chasing Cessna and Phesheya who
\nseem to always start well.
\nAs I write we are leading over Cessna by 33 miles and over the duo of
\nSec.Hayai and Phesheya by nearly 50 miles, I’m very glad we reversed the
\nearly fortunes. The race is still long, over 3400 miles to go and just as
\nwe gained this lead we can lose it, in a couple of days we should have
\nexcellent reaching conditions, Cessna’s favourite, and my bet is they will
\nburn these few miles in no time. Meantime let’s enjoy the the gentle
\nafternoon wind, the pleasant breeze and the momentary lead in the Global
\nOcean Race, it’s only the second time we’re in this position and we are
\nreally happy with the work done so far and to have emerged with everything
\nfunctioning and all in one piece.
\nThere are many people I need to thank for the excellent time we spent in
\nCharleston, and others who have helped me behind the scenes with my
\nendless luck of funds, I will write a separate blog later, now it’s time
\nfor some supper and chance to recuperate some of the lost energies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night was tough, in fact some of the worst we’ve seen in the entire race. After we left Charleston we received a warning of an approaching tropical storm with winds potentially up to 55knots, the night was approaching and we had already reduced sail to 3 reefs and the staysail… we had a tough […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-global-ocean-race"],"views":3139,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firstclasssailing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}