Location 2,000 miles to go
Weather Overcast and hot
Heading 320 degrees
The weather for the next few days is certainly going to be changing things around for us all in the northern Atlantic. We have been enjoying some great straight line, fast sailing and ahead are some lighter winds that appear to be veering round so they will be blowing from behind us. This will allow us to return to the spinnaker territory we enjoyed earlier on in the leg.
More spinnaker work is a prospect that fortunately onboard 'Imagine it. Done.' we are looking forward to. We understand from the chat shows that happen daily between the yachts and the rumour mill (yes it even operates out at sea) that some yachts in the fleet might be dreading that stressful time again. They may even be watching to see how good their handy work has been as they have sewn repairs to their spinnakers.
The weather is very short-lived and the wind appears to be returning forwards of the beam in a couple of days, so we will return to our headsails again.
So far, we have kept the same headsail on the foredeck for the duration of the 4,800-mile trip. It would be a crazy concept, but we have all discussed how amazing it would be to sail into Boston with the same headsail on the foredeck having not changed it for the entire leg. It would definitely speed up our sail checks that we carry out at each stop over, allowing us more free time to explore Boston.
Currently we are due west of the African Coast by 1,300 miles and yet only yesterday we were looking at the mainsheet discussing how dirty the rope was, when we remembered and saw that we have had a visit from the sands of the Sahara Desert. If you look at all the ropes, wires, aerials and even our very own Rescue Bear, who sits next to our radar, there is a red sandy coating on the starboard side and then the port side is clean. Clearly showing that the wind has been carrying this sand for some distance.
Neil completed a rig check this morning and came down covered in sand, but the mast is nice and clean along one side now.
A memory that we would rather forget from leg one is the plague of locusts that came and covered the yachts. This plague followed the sands, so fingers crossed that as we move further to the west the sand reduces and the locusts do not find us again.
Dee Caffari/Yachting World, 23 May 2005
