Weather lottery

Mid-Atlantic competing in the Fgiaro class' two handed Transat AG2R, Sam Davies reports from on board Roxy

At present we are still playing the minimum risk race - trying to hold onto the top group/trying to get into the top ten (rather than winning). Things are a lot less clear now in terms of the weather until the finish. From where I look there isn't an easy route to follow! Therefore, we decided to sail as near to the direct route as possible to minimise the distance sailed until the way to go becomes clearer...

Down to the south I think Brit Air could well win this race. Armel [le Cleac'h] is brave because when he was continuing to dive south, the routing software was showing only direct routes, and he is sailing many more miles so the corresponding increase in wind he finds in the south must be significant. The risk is that you find southeast trades on the final approach and therefore you end up dead downwind gybing when those in the north approach the finish with pace reaching.... For now, the weather is not clear enough to say (too far in the future)

For the time being we are negotiating some untypical rain squally zones that seem to have calmed our tradewinds temporarily. The high pressure above us will stay there, leaving an easterly flow but the trade winds seem to look like they are a little less stable as we go to the finish with little undulations in the isobars. Also, the Gulf of Mexico is going to throw out a nice little depression to the north of us, so we are keeping an
eye on that and how it develops and when. It could calm everyting completely if we are unlucky. Our fax is receiving Boston and New Orleans now, so that is on my joblist tonight!

Meanwhile Jeanne [Gregoire] who I sailed with two years ago is into the lead! Brilliant! Hope she wins! I miss her! Mind you we shouldn't forget Gerald [Veniard, Jeanne co-skipper]- he's due some credit too! (Having said that, it is great sailing with Alexia and teaching her the Figaro, the way to helm, trim, the nav - Maxsea, routing, weatherfax - everything is new to her and she's learning really fast!) Our objective with Alexia is that she is the first 'Bizuth' [Figaro first timer] into St Barths. We managed that at Porto Santo - all the teams ahead of us were made up of two 'hardened' Figaro sailors, while Alexia was the first 'never sailed a Figaro before this year' to get there! Mind you Sam Manuard [eminent yacht designer and Mini sailor] in Brossard is another Bizuth well placed at the mo, so we're watching them.

Memorable highlight of the last week: being attacked by a giant flying fish while having a pee off the back of the boat.

Roxy herself is holding up very well after two weeks at sea. Obviously, seeing as we have been under spinnaker (in considerable breeze) nearly all the time, our big spinnaker is a little tired! You can tell this because when it collapses and re-fills it doesn't go 'clack' any more, but phhrrruummmmppphh! However, it is still in one piece and we have not 'exploded' any spinnakers. There are a couple of 'pin
holes' but that's it.

We've been also taking great care of our forestay - in the breeze sailing with a lot more backstay than usual to prevent too much slack, and also always putting a sail-tie between the forestay and the mast to take out the slack and try to stop the "snatching" that seems to fatigue the terminals.

The only 'breakdown' (touch wood) has been our battery monitor, which stopped functioning. That was slightly concerning, as previous cases of problems with the battery monitor had led to certain boats losing all electronics (due to a high current being sent through the circuit during charging). Obviously I didn't want us to risk that, so I re-wired our batteries to remove the faulty monitor from the system to eliminate any risk. Luckily, we have the nke Prodata software which shows us the voltage at the autopilot ram to give us an indication of the level of charge of the batteries, so I don't have to keep checking with a little voltmeter!