Andy Petty's blog

This race for me has been characterised by either too much wind or not
enough, even none at all!.My wife claims this is always the case when she
goes sailing but this time we cannot just fire up the iron topsail to move
on. So it continues- yesterday saw gusts of up to 45knots from the SW and
today at 1600 there is 3 knots and a left over sloppy sea, so making any
headway is impossible.

My tracker went into stealth mode overnight. I guess it got as fed up as me
with yet another night of zero wind and the constant rattle of empty sails.
Repairs are being attempted - watch this space.

Its been another fun day at the wacky race course. Lewis Hamilton 16th on
the grid! Mind you, I am doing just as badly here, having found the largest
wind hole in the North Atlantic or so it seems. After days of light winds,
it finally gave up on me totally all last night I have some wonderful
video footage of the shining moon on a glassy sea. I ended up taking
sails down as the slatting noise was driving me crazy. I went to bed and
got 8 hours good sleep before a light breeze permitted me to just move
with the spinnaker up.

Where the tide runs out to the open sea,
The good ship Conway lies
No more she fights the enemy
No more she takes the tides
****** etc

This is the old school song, well the first bit at least. All OC's know the
rest.

The poet John Masefield (I must go down to the sea again, to the lonely sea
and the sky, and all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by) was an
OC and so am I. Another OC has posed the question - am I the first OC to
enter OSTAR? Out there, lies the answer!

At least at the back of the fleet, I get longer to see what may be coming.
This time its one very nasty looking,low pressure and very strong winds will
be here in a couple of days. The folks ahead are committed to hitting this
one face on but there remains a chance for me to take it on the shoulder
and remain North of its track. I will find out in a day or 3!

Meanwhile, I have to re-train the autopilot that USA is a nice place to
visit. At the moment, it just wants to go home to Europe and everytime I
look away, it turns us around - see my 0400 tracker report!!

There is also very little wind for many of us. Last night's fog was so
heavy and wet that I could hardly see my own mast head. This morning it
cleared a little then came back with rain and bizarrely, for around 5 mins,
the sun appeared also. Strange things happen out here on the ocean it seems.
The whole weather pattern is not what was expected and the new phenomena of
a summer Azores low is maybe what is confusing my swallow passengers as they
will not leave. I hope they have a visa for the States.

The race so far has been tough for everyone and some strong winds making for
good progress. I thought I wasn't doing too badly but there are some
players in the Jester class who are sailing an outstanding race and have
their boats nosing in places in the class above and this is a fantastic
achievement.

What makes this even better is that 2 of these guys are not just sailing a
race, but they are sailing to raise cash for such good causes, in particular
the IRC.

Consternation in the family today, when the 0800 positions suggested I was
heading for Scotland! In reality, I was dealing with a headsail furling
swivel problem and was pointing that way to re-hoist the sail just as the
tracker fired off the 0800 report! I will try and avoid such maintenance
actions on the every 4 hour point now and hence avoid a myriad of genuinely
concerned messages arriving by Iridium shortly afterwards. It does show
how the tracker is making this very real for so many other people.

Its simple really, when you look at the position reports. Jemima Nicholas is
not lost at all. Left behind, maybe but just following the pack will not
mean catching them up. Anyway, most of the guys ahead drive in UK on the
left, which means they go clockwise around a roundabout. I live in Spain,
where they go anti-clockwise (or sometimes straight across!) roundabouts.
So if a low pressure system is a boating roundabout, it was a no brainer I
would take anticlockwise if possible, or follow my host countrymen and go
straight through it!

lat:50.40n
lon:17.10w

First post during race from Jemima Nicholas. I never expected to really
compete as a race as I am carrying a garage full of spares and tools to make
the race and return to Spain as self sufficient as possible. However, I have
been impressed how the groundhounds took off at the outset and I am now
near the tail end although sailing at over 7 knots most of today. It seems
the Jester class is very competitive but they are not out of reach yet!