Race
Report

Little Injun’
It’s
now 15.00 hrs (ships time) and I have just come off watch. There is currently
14 knots of wind (TWA 90 – 100 degrees) and we are making 10 knots of boat
speed, steering a course of 45 degrees.

Despite
the fact that we are running low on spuds, pasta and snacks I have just
had some freeze dried chicken & mash, which was surprisingly good!
Having a water maker has, it has to be said, been a blessing. Overall
crew moral and banter is good – it pays to have a few light hearted crew
members who can also carry their weight. We have 3 Kiwis on board (Stu,
Husety & Magnus) so they are currently very excited / hard to live
with now ETNZ are 2:1 up in the cup!

Ger
O’Rourke, Skipper.

Earlier
Report

The team on Chieftain are now ten days into their HSH Nordbank Blue race
campaign and sailing in conditions which are a stark contrast to those
experienced initially. The gale force winds and steep seas seen last week
were replaced by frustrating calms, as a large high pressure system draped
itself over the fleet. Instead of regularly sailing at speeds between
18 and 20 knots, the crew have been trying to eke out every tenth of a
knot’s boat speed they can from the zephyr like headwinds. This is, as
Ed Hill reports, "a totally different type of sailing, keeping on
the ball, watching the clouds and weather and working on getting every
inch of boat speed we can out of the Chieftain".