Slow going

Paul Cayard reports from on board the Black Pearl

Position: 26,7.36S , 44,19.28W
Speed: 7 knots, Course: 333 deg.

It has been very slow going for the past 24 hours. Added to that, there seems to be no pattern to the weather. There is no trend. The wind is blowing basically directly from Rio so we are making very slow progress to the finish. If there were some pattern to recognize, it would be a lot less stressful. We could make a strategy and execute.

The GRIB told us that we would catch easterlies over the top of this high bubble and reach to the finish. ABN AMRO One appears to being doing that from the position reports. They have had to make some investing tacks on port (you can tell when they do this as their course is to the north east and they usually lose a bit of mileage) but it is working for them. However they are 80 miles more north than we. So seeing what they have we have invested a bit on port tack to try to get to the east and north. So far no luck. Rather, we seem to be blocked by the high bubble and if this is the case then there are a myriad of possibilities as to what will happen. So we have to try to stay between our opposition and the finish so that as they close in on us we at least have a chance of getting picked up by what ever it is they have. Knowing where they are or where they are going hour to hour is a bit hard to do when we only get a report every six hours-but at least we get that. So we are basically in a holding pattern.

It is hard not to think that this is a bit unfortunate. That the wind direction couldn't be from any other direction so we could make steady progress and just finish off these 200 miles and get our second place. But this is the nature of sailing and especially when you get close to land and Rio is notoriously light and fickle.

It is very hot out here. Not much wind so it is hard to get cool enough below to sleep. We still have food and diesel so no urgencies there yet.

We are the best we can with what we have.

Pirate Update-March 10 2006 nbr. 2
Position: 25,30.60S , 44,13.59W
Speed: 11 knots, Course: 40 deg.

After the last sked we came to a grinding halt. It was depressing to see that Brasil1 and ABN AMRO Two had made big gains and were in the new wind while we were becalmed. Shortly thereafter we got hit with a squall. It was all hands for about 30 minutes as we had to shift from light air mode. All sails forward to 25 knot mode. All sails aft. Not to mention that we had to get a spinnaker up and the jib down and bagged.

After we got under control we looked around and saw a boat about six miles behind. We are not sure who it is of the three that were behind. We have since put about four miles on them and can no longer see them. We are currently still being dictated to by this massive cloud line although it is only blowing 13 knots now.

It is going to be long night. The situation is very volatile with this front passing over the fleet and all the associated squalls. There can be 50 degree wind changes and 10 knots difference in wind speed. Big gains and losses!

Paul Cayard - skipper