Blog - Day 6 - 0046GMT Saturday 14th November
It was good to hear from home (the race organisation tell us little) that Seb and Curzon were airlifted to safety from the damaged BT. This whole incident sounded horrific and any rescue in these conditions must have been highly dangerous. The Portuguese Navy deserve much praise as this will have been a really tough rescue/recovery.
Anyone, absolutely anyone, would tell you that it is daft to run a yacht race acoss the N Atlantic in November! It all the more silly then to be a competitor in it! Certainly, if the TJV had been sold to us as a package holiday we woud be asking for our money back right now! Of course, we all know that the classic TJV is not like this, it's a sensible route with a bit of rough and tumble at the beginning in Biscay then settling into trade wind sailing as the fleet heads for the sun! At least it was when we went to Brazil! Don't get me wrong, the destination change is a good thing but I have to wonder if, in hindsight, it would have been better to force the fleet south in some way.
Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images
Still,here we are and with our race heads on having sailed the first Atlantic section more like a classic Transat (which is in June). Bubi and I have had much to cope with since the start, it has certainly been a baptism of fire for him but fortunately for both of us, he has the advantage of experience from sailing on our previous boat ex ECOVER 2 as Mutua Madrileña in the Barcelona World Race. These two boats are broadly similar, just with with more ballast, sail and power on the MGYR 60. Bubi is settling into the routine well and despite the tough going our current second position indicates that the partnership is working well.
It has however been interesting racing, I don't think I have ever seen such a wide range of strategies at play. We initially saw little option but to take the southerly route which Mich Dej has sailed, but then the weather model showed a down grading of the severity of the system, so we went with a route closer to the rhumbline. Frankly, this southerly route could easily be a winning strategy as to finish first, you have to first finish. At the other end of the spectrum we have Alex who sailed closer to the inital optimum routing - certainly a ballsy call and could still be winner if he can keep the boat together over the next few hours. In our little bunch of middle-of-the-roaders, it has been very close since the start and whilst we are ahead of the others the forecast is still not very clear. With the Atlantic split between gales in the north and calms in the south who knows what will happen as we move away from this enormous weather system.
We have at last emerged from the worst part of the storm that has loomed heavily in our thoughts during the first days out. I would like to report that it was better than expected - but it wasn't, in fact it was far worse. The first squall of the system we recorded 67kts and that really set the trend for the next 18 hours of hellish broadly upwind sailing. After that we don't know any numbers as both masthead wind units were broken off (and the windex) so we are left with having to sail the boat without the information stream that we generally rely on to keep the boat at peak performance and safe.This was especially frustrating as just a few hours before we had found the network problem, which had prevented the instrument/autopilot system from working properly since the start. Still the squalls kept on coming until the point where it all blended into a oneness and 40kts seemed like easy street.
Mark Lloyd / Lloyd Images
It's the middle of the night now, MGYR (I can't really get used to not calling the boat ECOVER!) is still reefed down and seas are still breaking over and around the boat, but the worst is definately behind us now. It is clear overhead and the lights of the Azores island Faial are just ten miles away to port. Bubi is asleep, I had a good catch up earlier. Tomorrow [Saturday] will be a day of jobs as we put the boat back into some sort form of race shape and we can begin some yacht racing rather than survival.
Mike
