After the oh, so sweet post yesterday (see ‘lucky guy’ below), we get a very sweet (in his way) email from Barcelona World Race skipper Ryan Breymaier on his wife’s (and former SCOTW’s) birthday. Keep an eye on Ryan and Boris Hermann’s Neutrogena here as they make their way to the Southern Ocean.
Today is my wife Nicola’s birthday, and contrary to the normal tradition,
she has given me a gift, rather than the other way around. More precious
than gold, jewelry, electronic gadgets, or any other present you can think
of. What is it?
20-25 knots of Westerly pressure! Her birthday marks the beginning of our
ride on the Southern Ocean conveyor belt, and we are very happy to have
it.
We spent all day yesterday in building pressure from the NW. It started
in the morning at about 5 knots, and by nightfall had reached 16 or so.
as we speak we have a steady 20 knots, still more north than predicted by
the GRIB.
For us this means that the low may not be moving as quickly as forecast,
and that we have the possibility of catching just a bit more of it before
it leaves us behind.
It is obvious that Virbac had great conditions for setting their speed
record, and you can see it here. The water is still super flat, as I am
sure it must have been for them, on the leading edge of their system.
We have lost miles on the others in the lighter conditions of the past day
or so, especially those just ahead who have been sailing into better
breeze further SE of us all day. No matter, thanks for the present, we are on the way: Full main, big
gennaker and staysail! Everything is great on board, we are eating like kings, and sleeping as
much as we can.
