Ahoy! It's been a while since I last updated you on the progress of the yacht Hold The Mayo. I am happy to report the boat is doing fine.

There have been some issues with some of the crew that should be noted. Of particular note are spectacular failures by the Naviguesser and the Idiot Driving The Boat.

After the mark at Fernando de Honohra I went south for while before making the turn east. The goal was to catch a front coming off Brazil and ride that all the way across the Atlantic. When it became clear that I was going to miss that bus I headed southeast.

Southeast worked well for a while. I continued to move up through the through the fleet and at my best I was 1476th (the total number of registered entries is well over 40,000 by now.)

Then something bad happened.

I got caught in the wake of the storm I had missed. The wind on the course is indicated by a grid of arrows. The stronger the arrow the srtronger the wind. I was reaching along going about 18 knots when the wind updated and the four arrows surrounding my position were all pointing in different directions and the strongest wind indicated was 8 knots. I might as well have run aground.

I checked a few weather sites that I still have bookmarked from hurricane season and there was another storm moving off Paraguay and heading east. So I headed south. Straight south on a course of 180°.

That was the move the Naviguesser said would pay off. Sure I'd lose a lot of boats in the process, but once I hooked into that front I'd get them all back and then some.

The Naviguesser said it would happen so the Idiot Driving The Boat pointed the bow South.

Then something bad happened.

The second storm was moving a bit faster than the first one that I had missed. On its own this was not a bad thing. I would still be in position when the storm arrived. Then circumstances kept me way from the computer for longer than I anticipated and I went a little further south that I wanted. I didn't see this as a disaster, it just meant I would have to work a little more north when I could as I sailed past the fleet.

The disaster was that the faster moving front caught up with the slower moving front and needing somewhere to go, it moved to the north. So now instead of a fast reach in the middle of the front or run in the top third, I was in the bottom third beating into a strong wind for two and half days.

By the time the storm blew far enough past me that the wind was no longer blowing in my face I dropped to just over 2,500th place.

I'm sailing along on a nice reach now making some progress back through the fleet a few boats at a time. It remains to be seen if approaching Cape Town from the south or the north will have the advantage.

I'm not sure what to do with the Naviguesser and The Idiot Driving The Boat. Certainly I shall withhold their ration of Rum. Hmmm, Maybe not.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 09:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment