Mass kedge off Portland

Sunday night update on progress in the Rolex Fastnet Race

By 1600 this afternoon all of the Open 60s had passed Portland Bill with Sebastien Josse' VMI leading on an inshore course and making the best SOG, with PRB, Charman 3, Ecover and Skandia Set Sail further offshore.

At present we don't know the whereabouts of Alfa Romeo or Zephyrus, but we do know that Charles Dunstone's Nokia had rounded Portland Bill at 15:35, followed eight minutes later by Conrad Humphreys on Hellomoto (the former Tyco). Team Tonic Volvo for Life also made it through and reported passing Portland Bill at 16:14.

However a majority of the fleet haven't and by all accounts there has been a mass kedge off Anvil Point. With high water at Portland at 18:31BST the tide turned off Portland Bill at around 1600BST this afternoon. Therefore the marginal cases would have dived offshore while others would have bitten the bullet and kedged.

The tide does unusual things off Portland Bill with a race occurring off the Bill in the hours immediately either side of high water but with a favourable current along the east coast of Portland from HW+1, although the strong southeasterly going tide doesn't subside until HW+4 (2231BST tonight).

Other Portland Bill reportings:

18:00 Leopard - 'close inshore'.
18:45 Aera
18:55 Venom
19:45 Solune
19:47 Jazz and Tonnerre (Tonnerre later reported that they rounded Portland Bill at 21:18)

A frustrated Alex Thomson on board Hugo Boss reported that they had kedged for four hours (from 1600-2000) off Anvil Point. At the time of our conversation at 2200BST they were sailing in a northerly breeze although Thomson described it as "still patchy". He was expecting the wind to go northwesterly. "Some people went inshore some people went offshore - we sort of stayed in the middle. The breeze filled from the inshore side," he said.

The Beneteau First 40.7 Fastwave II reported that they had anchored and were enjoying roast beef and baked alaska for dinner. Meanwhile on the Group 4 challenge 67, they were reportedly fishing for mackeral to relieve the boredom as they were kedged.

From on board Hellomoto Conrad Humphreys reported at 16:43: "We're into the westerlies just pass Portland Bill. We're pleased where we are so far. We were a couple of hours short of Nokia and ahead of Leopard going round the Bill. We're making so good progress - 10-11 knots down the track to Start Point."


Start Point

At 20:05 Alfa Romeo reported that she was close to Start Point (her reported position was a few miles to the southwest of Start Point), while Zephyrus V reported being at Start Point at 20:27 followed by Charles Dunstone's Nokia at 20:48. Zephyrus reported there being 8 knots of breeze from the north.

Mike Golding in a telephone conservation with his shore team said he was expecting to be passing Plymouth at around 2200 this evening.

20:05 Alfa Romeo
20:27 Zephyrus V
20:48 Nokia
21:25 Hellomoto
22:20 Charman III (Dominique Wavre's Open 60)
22:23 Team Tonic-Volvo For Life (reported 10 knots of breeze from the north)

Satellite wind chart at 2000 BST- showing not a lot of wind in the places where it matters...



and much the same story at 2230BST...



Forecast - is not looking great..

A high pressure system looks set to develop over the course of the night centred to the west of Land's End and will move towards Ireland. Hence the front runners can expect northerly winds once they are round Land's End with the wind going right and then disappearing altogether once they round the Rock. By tomorrow night the centre of the high will have moved to central Ireland and it will be engulfing the whole of the UK as well...

The centre of the high looks set to move across central England on Tuesday - which mean favourable winds for those attempting the passage across the Irish Sea then (although headwinds for those returning from the Rock).

The Bracknell charts shows that the front runners will have to negotiate a cold front to the east of the high as they pass the Cornish coast.