@teamtigress - Frankensails Family day 16 update

Frankensails family...Day 16 teamtigress progress.Well, what we had hoped in time duration would be a fast crossing has turned into a longer duration with a convoluted southern route due to early sail damage and large unsailable wind holes. It’s just the Atlantic after all....That said for the past 5 days the team have been in 15-25knt trade winds below latitude 16 and day and night and we have been hammering down the miles. So much so that we have taken several race division places and are climbing more. We are regularly showing best of top three division VMG and the team and drivers are working hard every minute of the day. Over the duration of the crossing we have blown up and fixed every single sail on board. We now have a whole family of Frankensails. They don’t look pretty but they. read more...

@teamtigress - Changes in lattitude, Changes in attitude

@teamtigress blog by Joel Nelson.We’ve finally reached the trade winds that steady friend of westbound sailors. After days of beating or reaching upwind in the squally darkness under storm Jib and tri-sail, always wet and usually cold, “the trades” became a destination in and of themselves. The collective high emitted by the crew upon emerging into the warmth nearly filled the spinnaker. Trades day 1 - bring up all the wet stuff(everything) for airing on deck in the sunshine. Cushions, bedding, clothing, all festooned on the topside.Trades day 2 - Gonzalo is hit by a flying fish on a kamikaze mission. Too small for fresh sushi, it’s thrown back into the sea. We catch a brief glimpse of 4 orcas (real life orcas). Our first perfect spinnaker drop. The skipper has hope of making us sailors.. read more...

@teamtigress - Frankensails 9th day and he has a brother...

Frankensails 9th day and he has a brother...It’s been some days since you’ve heard from us @teamtigress. This isn’t because we haven’t wanted to write but due to the sheer exhaustion of sailing and having no time on our hands. Skipper Sue here....An initial decision to go north ultimately meant we were forced south due to the more southern passage of the low pressure system that affected the northern sectors of the grid last week. Initially heading into this to then tack and come down with more favourable winds we somewhat inconveniently at this time seriously ripped our mainsail with a full leech to luff seam tear above either of the reefing points. This forced us to take the sail down and dramatically slowed us down meaning we couldn’t stay north and had to get south to evade some big. read more...

@teamtigress - Frankensails Frankfrurters

Welcome to the ARC 2017 blog! I (John) have been set the unenviable task of writing the first chapter in our mighty voyage. Three days in and finally the boat feels like a semi normal environment for our diverse crew, we have a Canadian (Richard), an American (Joel), a Spaniard (Gonzalo), a German (Simone), a French lady (Claire) a Finnish fellow (Willie) and four miserable brits (Skipper Susan, Dominic, myself and Polly (a wannabe American!))Observations to date:1. Sales rip easily2. Sails can be repaired (even when ripped in half!)3. The Atlantic is quite big4. Night Sailing is harder than day Sailing5. Sailing in the med/the Caribbean is a lot easier!6. Tinned food tastes surprisingly good (especially tinned frankfurters...)As of this morning we are 3rd in our fleet. Next instalment. read more...