Cam's stream of consciousness

Team Adventure's skipper explains what happened and believes they collided with an unidentified floating object

The Monster.com Transat Record attempt has come to a screeching halt. Many of you will have heard this news already. Heart Break and a few tears from me. A serious disappointment for all of us.

My first report was one of thanks and pride. To be the skipper of one of the worlds fastest sailing boats is an honour, a privilege and a gigantic thrill. To have super sponsors and supporters and a great sailing team and to have the opportunity to attack this record is a thrill. It is a job that comes with way too many hours of grunt work, worry and tension that is only occasionally rewarded with ideal sailing days like yesterday and last night. Then a Titanic-ish disaster strikes.

The departure was superb, conditions ideal, film and photos top quality, crew working like a well greased machine, the press starting to crank up the story, our Monster cat burning up the ocean. In France we were on the all the news all last night and into this morning. Over there they love this type of sailing adventure. Just what we needed, good interest and excellent predictions for great wind and seas all the way to the Lizard.

I am always cautious, I hate braking boats! Ok we are adventurers and we know the risks. I raised my concerns after hitting a small bit of garbage at 25 plus knots with our port bow and rudder and knocking off a chunk of fairing at the waterline stripe - an early warning. By late afternoon the fog had engulfed us in 100 foot visibility thick moisture .The masthead in the clouds. Travelling at 30 knots we would be making about a half boat length a second, one length in 2 seconds. Not much time for quick steering reactions. This once pristine ocean is full of human garbage!

During the night we had crossed the paths of fishing boats and had a too near encounter with a huge cargo ship close to the convergence zone of the Boston shipping lanes for me to find any comfort in my bunk. Scary fast and fun sailing. Proceed with caution. No we are not crazy.

We had near perfect conditions, we had established a nice lead of over 45 miles on the old record in the first 14 hours and had sailed 367 miles in that time on pace for a 610 mile day and settled into a comfortable and fast pace. 20 to 25 knots of wind, boat speed hovering around 28 knots full main, staysail and quad
gennaker hauling us down the track for a rendezvous of Newfoundland with a weather system as good as one good ask for. On Paper - railroad tracks laid straight to the Lizard.