A great weekend of virtual racing for the yacht Hold the Mayo. My decision to focus on working south was a good one, and would have been even better if I has stuck to it.

Coming into the Cape Verde Islands on a great breeze heading just west of south, about 184°, so as to not actually hit an island, I was making great gains on the fleet peaking Saturday evening at 3,992.

I knew that eventually I was going to have to head more to the west, but I also knew that when I did I would likely lose some of those gains.

So I jibed onto starboard and set of southwesterly. It started out well but then, of course, the wind shifted slightly and not in a good way. It was then that I wished I had stuck to my plan and not jibed until I was through the islands. I really had no option to jibe back to port.

So I decided to bite the bullet and keep going. The way things were looking through the Doldrums heading west and then south would keep me in decent wind. Throughout the evening, the losses were agonizing, but I kept telling myself that it would pay off in the end when I turned south again. I set a course at 245° and went to bed.

When I logged back in this morning I had made great progress to the west, and had been passed by 962 boats. I was back to 5,263.

I jibed onto port and pointed the bow south at 8:00 a.m. by 10:00 p.m. I had made up the losses and then some. My position in the fleet 3,421 and improving steadily.
One of the features of a race like this that goes through an area like the Doldrums, is that it can provide an opportunity for those in the back to make great gains on the leaders. If I can manage to get through the region on decent wind while boats in front of me are becalmed, I can come around the turning mark in great position. IF. IF. IF.

On a technical note, I discovered accidentally that I can turn off the automatic 10 minute refresh. (Maybe I should have read some of the directions.) Now my day is not going by in 10 minute snippets and I can get other things done. It also makes it easier to focus on the long term goals of the race rather than just having good results at the next refresh.

I just made another check of the forecast and the size and shape of the doldrums has changed slightly. I was headed for a spot that in 24 hours was predicted to have winds of 3 knots. Not very fast sailing that. I am hesitant to make a jibe onto starboard and head southwest again. So I turned the boat dead down wind - that is with the wind directly astern. I'll see how that works for a while before I decide to jibe.

There will be no avoiding some light air sailing between my current position and the mark, but if this course works out I'll have light air of 9 knots instead of 3.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 09:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment