| At sea. Clipper 05-06: All I ask is a lightweight spi and instruments to sail Jersey Clipper by |
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| Friday, 31 March 2006 | |
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Mark Taylor: Well, a bad sched for us. Unfortunately this afternoon all we could do is watch Cardiff pop her lightweight spinnaker and reach away from alongside us. Our lightweight is in tatters on the saloon floor. It exploded in about 6 knots of breeze and is in need of some expert TLC. We have therefore being doing our best with the tools at our disposal reaching up to build speed then bearing away under whites. Unfortunately the wind is neither strong enough or aft enough to fly our mediumweight. The guys are mastering sailing with no instruments, although at night and when flying kites it certainly calls for our best helms and even during the day racing is a compromise as we can't push the angles to the 3 degree margin we need to. Also all our benchmarking and polar analysis relies on having accurate wind direction, strength and boat speed but we only have one of these. With non-functional SSB weather fax (a problem that we've had since leaving Liverpool in September) together with non-functional SatC (which stopped the day after we left Subic Bay) we have been reliant on GRIB files supplied by Clipper via email. Normally we would receive a six day forecast on race start day, then 3 day updates every other day. Unfortunately no data was provided on race start day and only a 3 day forecast on the 26th and another one today so with limited wind data and minimal weather information we have been running blind. You definitely get the feeling that yachts are not the norm here with both the navy and fishing boats taking an active interest in us. We have just had to alter course by 3 degrees to sail around an armada of small fishing boats. www.jerseyclipper.com |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 31 March 2006 ) |
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