Easter Monday 10:17S 133:10W
This is a rally NOT a race! I keep telling my self this however when Storyteller gets ahead it seems to concentrate the mind a little. A week ago Storyteller took off on a different tack and for a period flew it's A Sail. A stands for asymmetrical and they are also know as a MPS (Multi purpose sail) or a Gennacker (being a cross between a genoa and a spinnaker). In other words they are a light weight sail made from spinnaker type material and instead of being flown from a pole, they are tacked down to the yacht right forward. Anyway they ended up crossing in front of us and then I made a tactical blue and they ended up even further ahead. Listening to discussion on the radio net we I formed the opinion that they had not continued to use the A sail and so decided that we would when the positions and time was right. Friday we flew it all day and we figured that in the 12 hours we had it up we halved their lead. Saturday it was up again all day on a very favourable leg and so we caught up.
Easter Sunday was going to be a real blaster. We crossed tacks early in the morning, we were heading north on a starboard tack while Storyteller was on the port tack heading more towards our destination. Now the plan was that we would go few miles further north, gybe, and then get the A sail working again, and really put in long day and end up 12 to 18 miles in front as we were prepared to sacrifice a little northerly position for a good big lead. All went according to plan, until we pulled to clew out of the A sail as we were hoisting it and that put paid to those plans. We spent all
yesterday sailing parallel to them about 8 to 10 miles away.
This is a RALLY NOT A RACE!
Today we have been sailing in company with Storyteller, Just Do It & Gray Lady as we all start to bunch up as we approach Hiva Oa.
Cheers