It has been an up and down day of sailing for the yacht Hold the Mayo. This morning I was blazing fast approaching the Canary Islands passing an average of 60 boats every 10 minute update.

I was a few cycles away from breaking into the 4000s when I reached the islands at about noon. Then the wind got lighter and shifty and a clear path through the islands with good speed was not to be had. Add to this that I seriously mistimed my jibe south and was in danger of hitting an island and it was not pretty.

Four and a half hours later I fond myself in steadier stronger winds on the other side of the Canaries. I have begun climbing slowly back through the the fleet passing 9 or 10 boats every cycle I've been holding steady - basically going south for the last 5 hours and baring major wind shifts will stay on that heading for quite a while. My plan is to sail south and hopefully soaking a little bit west for probably the next two days. The next big move will be when to make the turn toward the rounding mark at Ihla de Fernando de Noronha. (Off the coast of Brazil.)

My plan is to pay attention to what the real boats in the real race are doing. Some of the best sailors and navigators on the planet are out there marking a trail.

In the screen cap you will see a few boats very close to HTM. Each 10 minute cycle the software would show you a few of the boats in your general vicinity. On a few occasions today the software brought up boats that are very close. Three boats I marked as "friends" are all within 11 miles of me. Since they are marked they show up on very cycle and are a useful benchmark for my performance.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 05:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment