Fast lane to Newport

Sam Davies sends her exclusive report from on board MaidenII

Sam (right) cleans out her doggie bowl

It is towards the end of day two of our Antigua - Newport trip. We are throwing down the gauntlet and setting a new record for this course. This is much better than just delivering Maiden II up to Newport as we have some real race training, and as we are setting this new record and we do not want it to be easy to break, it is full-on.

Since our Route of Discovery attempt, we have been in Antigua where we did some corporate sailing, and some rest and recuperation! We also did a little bit of essential boatwork, although this was not easy as our container was going direct to Newport and we were short of spares and tools as the boat carries little extras on board for record attempts. This is a problem with these fast cats: you get there before the container if you are not careful, so you have to plan ahead!

We had been on standby for exactly one week by the time we left, and we were all very keen to get back out into the ocean and do some sailing again. We crossed the start line off Falmouth Harbour at 1700 on Friday. Then we had 24 hours of fast reaching - 25-33 knots boat speed in around 17-23 knots wind. In the first 36 hours we had covered half of the course, and our predicted trip time is 72-84 hours, so things are looking promising.

In the last few hours, the wind has dropped as we are leaving the trade winds and must negotiate the Bermuda high pressure ridge. We have been changing sails to optimise the boat speed - first from headsail to gennakers, and now we have the code zero up. We have also been shifting the weight across the boat - all the sails had been stacked aft and to windward, and now they are on the leeward bow, the spares have been moved across to the port hull fwd, and even the standby watch are on the bow!

We have only a few more hours of this light stuff, as there is a low moving across and the southwest winds associated with it are on their way to us. With any luck we will be trucking along again by midnight. Then we are expecting a fast run into Newport in building southwest winds. We must sail fast to try and beat the cold front, which will head us and bring some nasty weather with it.

Conditons on board have been great so far - it is still warm, and although wet on deck, it is dry below. Fortunately, no one sells freeze-dried food in Antigua, so we are eating pasta and rice and there is plenty of tea and coffee too! There was a small panic when the cutlery was missing, but fortunately Anne [Monmousseau] managed to find it.

There are a few injuries on board - on my watch I am the only healthy person! It is mainly sprains and strains that need to be looked at in Newport, but more seriously Stan [Delbarre] has a badly infected ear lobe that is not responding to antibiotics. Helena 'operated' on it earlier today to relieve the pressure, after advice from our doctor, and changed the antibiotics. Hopefully he will now be on the mend.

In Newport, we have a fair amount of work to do to get Maiden II how we want her. The rig is scheduled to come out on Wednesday, for some maintenance, upgrades and new standing rigging. Amongst other jobs, we will also fix our daggerboard that was broken in the Mediterranean.

Then we will be ready to go on standby for our next record attempt - just watch this space.......