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 do the job! The repair to the main has held up but our sail repair box is getting more and more sparse by the day having gone through 4 spools of sail repair twine over 1 main, 1 jib, the code zero and the S2. We are pulling twine strands from cord to use as a substitute, quite ingenious, I feel we should be setting up a loft..... Polly has a production line in kite repair going on in the saloon, we may well set up shop in St Lucia 🍹
It is hot hot hot today down at latitude 13 and we are in to the sea moss zone of the Atlantic having to dodge huge banks of sea weed whilst we ride the big swell with our kite up.
All on board are well, conservation has become the name of the game, conserve battery, conserve fuel, make extra water..... everyone’s doing a great job. Our manoeuvres are becoming really slick and everyone is working so hard.
Sadly still having problems with our new Garmin instruments, sensitivity to water and the power they draw off the batteries, however we are working through it. Who needs new expensive water proof electrics on the boat anyway? We set our resident German technician/crew member Simone to task with some plastic bags and gaffer tape to resolve the problem. “Vorsprung durch Technik” as they say.... 😂
An update here from Simone.
Our days are rocking away to the perpetual motion of the waves, the eternal sky and the continuous downwind. Sunshine galore and bright moon lit nights make up for our rather rough start of the journey. It’s slowly sinking in that we are crossing the second largest ocean on the planet. We have finally hit the trade winds and are on the Autobahn to St. Lucia. The countdown to our ETA has begun. Large patches of seaweed confirm that the island in the West isn’t so far away anymore. We are eagerly studying our Caribbean guide book and dream of pizza, pedicures and cold drinks upon arrival – it’s all about the small pleasures in life these days. An ocean really makes or breaks a man or woman. 🌬🌊⛵️🏝🍕💅🍹
Simone, Sue, Ville, Richard, Claire, Dom, Polly, Gonzalo, Joel and John.
@teamtigress ARC Crew 2017
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