31|12|18
Cape to St Helena 2018 Day 6
Great news this morning is that all aboard JML Rotary Scout have made it to safety at Luderitz. She motored to the protected waters yesterday with a forestay problem which they will now try to repair…maybe it’s a sad story with a happy ending!?
Still out in front, Banjo are making good progress island-wards, with about 660 miles to go. Rocket and Naledi are smoking along in hot pursuit. I’d imagine these three yachts are reveling in the conditions with some fast, steady sailing.
Most of the rest of the fleet have converged into a united front this morning. This jolly bunch have about 950 miles to go, and should all cross the halfway mark today.
Crossing tracks at 08h30 this morning, I can only imagine that all the “manne” (men) aboard Caribbean Soul and Felix immediately whipped out and compared the sizes of their biggest fish. Boys will be boys. It’s always so cool when boats come back together after hundreds of miles and days of sailing across an ocean to share their common experience and goals…usually loaded with banter…and then the sad divergence as the determined individual soul of each boat gently ghosts away on her own best angle…
Talking about “manne”, two of the “main manne” of this race, St Helenian James Hearne with his family aboard Carpe Diem, and race chairman John Levin on Indaba, also crossed tracks this morning.
John, being a steady consistent man, hailed “Top of the morning to you!”. James carefully put down his cup of tea and asked his wife, Hanna, to please pass a crumpet over to John. High sea tea.
James is a really handy guy to know if you ever plan to visit St Helena by boat – he owns a company on the Island called St Helena Yacht Services.
News from Dale Kushner, sailing solo aboard YOLO:
“Yesterday was one of those perfect days in the South Atlantic. Clear water and sky. Enough breeze with it doing the normal thing of increasing during the day as the temperature cools slightly in the afternoon. The flying fish I saw were the biggest I have seen yet in the South Atlantic…similar in size to what I have seen in the Indian Ocean. Last night there was cloud cover, but fair sailing. This morning there are nice conditions, with a light breeze that should increase a bit during the day. I will do a small sail repair on the jib today. Sailing along under spinnaker in the South Atlantic…aah! Last night clicked over to less then a 1000nm to go and later today hopefully over the halfway mark..”
Compromise report that they are sailing in very favourable weather condition, and relaxing on the last day of 2018. No fish caught yet as they have pass over Valdivia Bank. “We look like a Chinese junk boat with all the laundry hanging.
Wishing you an early happy new year form the COMPROMISE CREW – Party tonight, all welcome”
Asante report that their spinnaker and autopilot are working beautifully together. That means some proper chilling aboard!
Caribbean Soul admit that they crossed paths with Felix! About 300m apart – and was nice to chat with them. “Weather great everything slowed down so better on the board. Baked bread and made pizza. No fish yet but some flying around. Hope you have a great last day of 2018. Boet and Team.”
Banjo had a good run last night: “First time we flew our big spinnaker right through the night (compared to our second night sailing on jib only). Nights are very dark so very scary when a squall hits – but we survived and are now cracking along at a nice pace. Brad has made us some awesome meals – breakfast lunch and supper: fried eggs on toast with onions and baked beans for breakfast, chicken wraps for lunch and spaghetti bolonaise for supper, followed by xmas pudding and custard. He is planning a 3 course meal tonight, including steak egg and chips, gem squash and salad. We have certainly had some challenging conditions this race, but the grib files forecast fair conditions for the remainder. Rocket are giving us a hard time so we cant relax at any time. Everyone is good and healthy (except Sarel has a sore toe) and are enjoying the race. Cheers for now, The Banjo Boys.”
Carpe Diem are flying the asymmetric kite. “Happy New Year. Bottle of bubbly on ice.”
Ronin are trying to hand stitch spinnaker. “All great here!”
As the boats continue to sail away far over the horizon, so does the year of 2018. Hope it’s been a good one for you, and I look forward to updating you next year.
Xtra-link | Xtra-track have updated the interface of the tracker, and will continue to improve its functionality and features. Great teamwork, thank you.
You can track race progress here:
http://sthelena.xtra-track.com
Cape to St Helena 2018 is a sister race to the #Cape2Rio2020, which is supporting the race with a daily race update. Like|Love|Share!
by Luke Scott
