From: OmanTri
To: update
Subject: Monday4am GMT
Date: 09/02/2009 04:22:31
It’s getting dark here now, but in the last 5 hours the skies have cleared a
bit, and the wind has headed us a bit – as was forecasted… we are just
waiting to see evidence of the Low passing ahead of us – we have been
looking at every satellite picture that we recieve hoping to see some sign
of a circulation of cloud , but we have seen nothing yet. In the mean time
we continue eastwards right now at 70 degrees to the winds, with 1 reef and
staysail jib, we had the solent jib up for quite a while but it’s limit and
an important part of our sail inventory so best not risk any damage – and we
don’t need to be at 110% speed now – just sitting back a little bit and
allow this bad weather to pass ahead of us. The winds should drop for us in
the next 24hours, and likely rotate right around us through the west, south
west , south, and back to North East via east! once we are back on the NE
winds we’ll crank it up a bit in a bid to make some good time towards cape
horn – seems like a good window for us to round in nice weather ( as nice
as it can be ) if we get our timing right – this is still a week away, so
the forecast is far from sure – especially in an area renound for it’s
changable conditions.
Talk onboard at the moment is of the 1/2 way point which we’ll see sometime
in the next 36 hours we hope….. Hooch is eyeing up his white choc buttons
( aren’t we all! ), if we cross over during darkness ( as has been the trend
on this trip – passing milestones at night) then i can see it being a fairly
quiet afair, with some ‘occassion’ taking place the following day. One
part of all of us says it’s ONLY half way, and there are so many miles to
go still that it’s easy to play it down. However it is still 1/2 way and
means we have sailed over 10,000nm to be where we are, and we’ll all be
happy to still be going – such is the technical nature of these projects
that the smallest thing can cause and early end to the trip… This has been
proved time and again on the Jules Verne race course, with big multihulls
having damage to masts or rudders or daggerboards that have put them either
out of contention for the record, or out of completing a circumnavigation.
There is an element of chance that ‘making your own luck through good
preparation’ just can’t cover. – so please keep fingers crossed as much for
the second half as you have for the first!!!
Our other main topic onboard is of the Louis Vuitton Pacific Cup, we have
got some snippits of information from what’s going on and by all accounts
it’s going very well for Team Origin – we’ll done guys….hope this bodes
well for the future – when ever the next cup will take place!
Also thanks a lot to people who have send messages by the website – it’s
great to read that people are following what we are doing out here, and it’s
also great to hear from a few old friends who we’ve not been in touch with
for a while.For those of you who keep reading our updates, and think i’ll
send them a message later….. don’t do it later do it now !!!!! there’s
no time like the present!
Fashions come and go again today with a mix of Reds and Yellows once more –
having been in both today for two stints on deck i can recommed the Yellow
for resilience to wave impact, and red for convenince and speed of getting
gear on. When you get on deck in a hurry to help with a sail change any
protection at all from the elements is welcome.