And while you were scoffing your Easter eggs...

Sam Davies reports on her first week at sea in the Transat AG2R

While most people were scoffing their Easter Eggs, watching the Volvo race scores on Virtual Spectator, or battling it out for the Red Funnel Trophy at Cowes, I have been fighting to pass the scoring gate at Porto Santo in 'the other' big ocean race of the moment - the Transat AG2R.

We are eight days into the race now, and it is probably the fastest on record, as we are already at 28N, having been ejected from the Bay of Biscay by a blustery NNE wind.

The start for us was terrible, and magnificent, at the same time. Terrible because we were unlucky with every zephyr of the unestablished sea breeze deciding to trick us - hence a poor debut - but fantastic to have the ROXY Fan Club out in full form. The Roxy fleet consisted of: Open 60 Roxy, Mini 650 (new Manuard unstayed, canting rig built, owned by Alexia's boyfriend) two Zodiacs (one enormous one full of Roxy girls!) and half a vedette that appeared to have been hijacked by Alexia's family (at least three generations!)

After a gentle start, the fleet writhed through the outlying rocks of the Glenans (in true Figaro style - if there is a metre each side between the rocks - it passes!) and out into the ocean. Gradually the gradient took over from the sea breeze and we were all under spinnaker tight reaching.

The first night quicklly became baptism by fire and the wind built, and built until we were spi reaching in more than 30 knots average with gusts up to 40. Yeeeeha! As always, we were within boat lengths of each other, so the seamaship is ruled out by a healthy competitive spirit, and so we all left the change down to small spi too late. Not only do you actually go slower under big spi after a certain wind range, but also the technical difficulty rating for the change becomes very high.

We weren't perfect, but no breakages on board Roxy and we settled into a night of boat speeds in the high teens (top speed 21kts) and hairy moments (including one Chinese gybe!) and continual fire-hose action!

Alexia and I have a routine of one hour on - one hour off which keeps the concentration at the helm maximum. In these first breezy nights, we slept in foul-weather gear ready to jump on deck (and asssist with the post-wipeout bearaway) We were exhausted!

There were lots of breakages, including two forestays in the first two days (total now 4 forestays broken) The problem with the Figaro rig is that tension is not high and downwind the forestay is very slack, so it 'snatches' and there is a lot of possibility for fatigue cracking at the terminals. Our technique was that we sailed with the backstay over-tight in the breeze to minimise the slack and when the wind is lighter and the backstay needs to be off for boat speed we take the sack out with a sail-tie between mast and forestay.

We broke nothing. Our only problem in these first days was a small gas leak. It finally showed itself by catching fire a bit like the flame from the chimneys at Fawley whilst I was (very carefully) making a cup of tea. Just a question of dis-mounting the joint, cleaning the seal and re-tightening it, luckily. Hopefully we haven't lost too much gas, otherwise the last days will be miserable.

In terms of strategy, I am happy with my decisions so far. We were a bit too wide at Cap Finistere, but the west payed off for the approach to Porto Santo. We were alongside Brit Air (who passed first) in the day of the approach, and we were unlucky and got 'swallowed' by a windless rain squall. Otherwise I believe we would have been in the top 5.



The next part of the Roxy Fan Club were at Porto Santo - my Mum and Dad were there at the mark in their 'house' (18m wooden schooner Ninita) to wave us by and it was a great opportunity to chat by VHF for free with them! The race committee collected our DV cassette for their media machine and photos, interviews etc from the press boat. Unfortunately for the orgaisation, we all passed in the middle of the night!

After the mark, the next big decision had to be made. We opted to go north of Madeira, which avoided the risk of being caught in a wind shadow of giant proportions, but added extra miles to our route (upwind). I want to do this race without risk (even if it means losing out sometimes). This move actually put us up the rankings to the highest postion - sixth, but the problem was that we want to go South to avoid the high pressure and the following depression and its cold front.

So, in the end those who took the risk to pass south of Madera are looking better at the moment, and last night we made the hard decision to gybe south and take a lot of transoms, to put us in a stronger position for the week to come. Again it is a question of risk, and I believe there is less risk involved this way!

As you can imagine, our nails have been bitten!!!!

To add to the decision stress, Maxsea Chopper - our only authorised source of GRIB files - has been on holiday since Friday. Typical that Easter has fallen exactly when we need the info to make some big decisions! So it is a little bit 'seat of the pants' sailing at the moment. (this area is also exactly in the middle and you struggle to receive faxes from either side of the Atlantic.)

And then, day to day life continues on board Roxy - Easter arrived at 5am Sunday (we couldn't wait any longer!) and chocolate consumption is high (to finish it before it melts!) New hairwashing technique - suspend yourself upside down off the transom! Oranges and apples are still fresh (having been lovingly wrapped individually in aluminium foil); cheese is a little less fresh, but Roxy is half French, so that is normal. Turtles are around (yes - I hit one) but no flying fish yet (kind of a relief because Alexia has threatened to initiate me in the flying fish sushi!)

Better go - it is my turn to replace Alexia on the helm.

Here's hoping for strong winds in the south (and that the Maxsea chopper guys go back to work tomorrow!)

Sam and Alexia - ROXY Figaro 28 32N 23 10W