2002

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Ocean Planet Report
Ocean Planet Around Alone Log
Tues, Sept 17th, 20:32 gmt
Pos: 40 54 N, 61 41
Wind Light from the WSW

Greetings from the soggy Atlantic!

It has been raining nearly all day, yuk! At least the boat is getting cleaned. I’ve been taking it rather easy, considering this is the biggest race I’ve ever been in . . . . should have the kite up right now, but have been using the reacher instead. It is almost as fast and I don’t trust all these rain clouds that alternatively provide wind and take it away. The last thing I want to do is have any gear mess-ups early on so I’m focusing on the weather, the other boats postions, basically doing my homework and trying to be in the right spot. Which isn’t easy . . . right out of New York the fleet split in all directions. Pretty funny, but kinda nerve-wracking as it makes you question your game plan.

Anyway, I wound up with Bobst and Hexagon in front of me, apparently with the same strategy of hanging on to the southwesterlys as long as possible. Then they both bore away more to the north and for some reason Hexagon seemed to slow up. Solidares (Thierry Dubois) went north earlier, then apparently sensed trouble seeing us charging along more to the south. He made a pretty dramatic move to the south and ditched the other northerly boats, which looks like it worked since he has blasted into the lead.

I was closer to the front until getting stuck on the wrong side of a big mess of clouds that left me jibing back and forth trying to find the wind again. Back up to 10-15 kts now. The big question is whether I have dropped back too much to stay in the breeze tomorrow. We’ll see!

Oops, gotta run, getting hit by yet another rain squall….see ya tomorrow!

Bruce