Hermes - Log 8 Hermes: Final days

Two more suns. No more moons. A swirl of starry and squally nights. And a sea of Sargassum.We are amongst our final days of the ARC Transatlantic. We have just over 200 NM to go, but frequent gybes and below forecasted wind have our arrival time constantly being pushed back. While we all look forward to St Lucia and the luxuries of land, it's tempting to want to wish the final miles and days away, but we have to enjoy these moments.When patience can be short, we must instead practice gratitude. Every evening we've enjoyed a beautiful sunset over a delicious crew dinner together. We've seen more whales than dolphins, we've lost a lot of kites and miles, but we've gained great experiences and tales to tell!Yesterday we battled squalls and then slogged through a sea of sargassum, our first. read more...

Hermes - Log 7 Hermes: Another one bites the dust

Is it still considered "giving it all you've got" when all you've got left is one sail? 🤔Well, we were down to just the genny, then that gave up as well. Blew up along the leech and the luff. Another fun wake up call. 🤦‍♀️We had our first night of squalls, up to 30 knots, so being down to just the jib hasn't been too painful. Luckily this morning we've had unexpected breeze in the mid-20s, a massive sea state, and surfing speeds to complement our Best of Queen sunrise playlist. 🌅 🎶 We're left with no choice but embrace our final days at sea with a positive attitude. Racing and placing isn't really on the cards anymore, so cruising it is. Meals were already splendid, but we are taking it to the next level with some special snacks and desserts... and the grand opening of Le Spa. read more...

Hermes - Log 6 Hermes: Tearable Tuesday

💥The boat reverberated from a jolting force that matched its booming sound. It sounded/felt like we hit something, but after the boom the boat felt lighter, and my watch rushed out of bed to find BWB kite turned flag behind the boat.Luckily we were set for a letter box takedown, so the unintended kite drop went pretty smoothly. But upon inspection we found BWB to be out of commission, two out of three of the tack webbing strops blew up and one of three on the head also went. A repair at sea was possible, but would be by hand and could potentially result in a less favorable failure.So then we were down to Mustang, breeze was in the low 20s, so we felt comfortable putting her up. 0615 we lost BWB, 1645 we lost Mustang. She went like she always does, proper decapitation for no apparent. read more...

Hermes - Blog 5 Hermes: Oh Whale Now

It was just after we switched from Mustang Spinny to BWB. The breeze was in the mid-20s and we were surfing into the mid-teens. Then we saw it.A teardrop-shaped foam imprint appeared on the surface. The residual disturbance in the water was too lifelike to be a wave wake, but way too big to be a dolphin. Morgen and I looked at each other. Did you see that?WHALE!! A 20-something foot whale appeared off the leeward bow. HEAD UP!! Morgen was on edge. His rational phobia of whales stems from a catastrophic collision he had with a whale on our Open 60 O Canada. We didn't need another repeat of that...But this whale we could clearly see. And maybe that made this all worse for Morgen. For about 45 minutes this juvenile fin whale literally played and surfed with Hermes. There may have even been. read more...

Hermes - Blog 4 Hermes: Strategy

Week 1 Strategy: south, safety, sustainability. We end up turning south at least every day. Hundred mile step here, short step there, attempting to inch our way west of south while carrying our asymmetric kites as deep as they and the sea will allow us.Safety and sustainability have also been our strategy. The last two nights we ran the genny instead of our mast head kites. One reason was the sloppy sea state and dark nights, another was just to give the crew a break. Last time we had BWB up at night, it was a hot mess, so we ran a more forgiving headsail. But early this morning, at around 0400, the breeze dropped below 15 knots and we couldn't (and wouldn't) wait until sunrise to put up Mustang Spinny. Light air is forecasted for the rest of the day, so up she'll stay.We've also put an. read more...