Exocet Strike - Exocet Strike 12-13 March 2017

Now we are making our way towards one of our penultimate waypoints of this trip. The wind dropped a bit earlier so we shook out reef 3 to reef 2. Within an hour a squall hit and pushed the wind up to 25 knots, it's well behind though so the apparent wind was much lower. Pushed us in our direction pretty well though at up to 9.5 knots.After not having any squalls for some days it's a bit of a surprise to now get one, apparently a lot around today, oh well. Still looking like tomorrow Tuesday 14th sometime in the afternoon, that will be good!. read more...

Exocet Strike - Exocet Strike 11-12 March 2017

We considered pulling the main up again yesterday afternoon, and almost immediately the wind picked up to over 20 knots again. We had a quick overnight sail instead. Less current now though, only between 0.5 and 1 knot with us, but still making good progress.This morning we figured the wind would start to drop off, and by noon we had taken the main up again, albeit with three reefs. It's kept our average above 7 knots and not unduly pushing the boat around.. read more...

Exocet Strike - Exocet Strike 10-11 March 2017

We certainly have a lot of positive current with us. In the last 24 hours we did 179 miles through the water but 205 over the ground. That shows we had 26 minutes miles worth of current with us, pretty useful.On of our sister boats has just advised that they are now experiencing current against them, they are approx 350 miles ahead of us, so we have that to look forward to.Depending on what happens with current etc we still hope to arrive sometime on Tuesday.From later today we will be putting our AIS in silent mode and may turn off our yellowbrick tracker. Being off the coast of both Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago is unfortunately a hot spot for piracy. We need to be very wary of unusual vessels.. read more...

Exocet Strike - Exocet Strike 9-10 March 2017

The wind built and so did the swell, so we figured that overnight no mainsail would be a good option. Less pressure on the boat etc, rudder, ourselves. Peaked at about 28 knots and we made great progress over 200 miles noon to noon. The wind has dropped at the moment, not sure if it will pick up again, so sailing very conservatively at present. Looking like a Tuesday arrival if we can keep averaging 7.5 knots. The wind has also gone more to the east so the apparent wind is now less. So maybe put some mainsail up later, or early tomorrow.. read more...

Exocet Strike - Exocet Strike 8-9 March 2017

Yesterday we knew we were still in the ITCZ or doldrums, lots of big grey clouds, squalls and often very little wind. Then in the afternoon the wind started to stabilise the clouds lifted a bit and we were on our way. By midnight we put the third reef in since the winds were forecast to go further forward and build. By reefing early we made the boats motion and heel much more comfortable and didn't slow down. Earlier in the day I had swapped over from the low speed to the high speed Duogen propellor to endure we didn't break the shaft weak link.We are now averaging 8 - 9 knots over the ground and the current could go as high as plus four, which will give us an average speed of 9-10 knots, that will be impressive if it happens!We saw our fellow Warc boat Golden Dragon on AIS this morning. read more...