From the Deck Of Prospector 1600z 04 July 2015

Duct Tape

They say if it moves and it shouldn’t – use duct tape. Well I am happy to report, the duct tape has been deployed to another critical item that Henry and I broke last night. The night before as you recall we teamed up to demo the critical A6 kite as we hit warp speed pressing as hard as we could. Just five minutes before the kite disintegrated in spectacular fashion as we screamed along deep into the 20 knot boat speed range, we remarked knowingly to each other “this is the right sail”. Five minutes later as we frantically tried to devise a method to get it down, with the bow wake back by the cockpit and as high as the spreaders, Henry remarked “this is nuts”. Indeed.

Larry has remarked how hard we have been pressing in the big breeze. For us 30 knots of windspeed is the new 15. 20 feels like light air. We continue to do so. Foot hard on the accelerator. However, safety is critical and we do need to arrive in one piece. Last night we even took two reefs to keep the boat under control. Even with that, as the waves and the wind continued to build last night we found ourselves surfing along on our 60 foot surfboard occasionally on the edge of control.

While I was driving fast down a wave, another huge wave came aboard completely uninvited and swept Henry into our carbon wheel which gave way with a loud crack! I was swept off my feet but hung onto the wheel. Henry ended up upside down on the driving platform while I grabbed the leeward wheel before we crashed.

Our resident MacGyver's in Tery, Quinn and Lew puzzled over the repairs talking knowingly about stresses and load factors for carbon. Plans were hatched to take the wheel off and grind it out and repair with fiberglass. Formulas debated. But after deep consultation as we ripped along in the dark, it was deemed that wrapping the cracked part with duct tape and our special “super secret” tape (aka duct tape) would do the repair nicely and indeed it has.  Henry and I are here all week so I suspect the duct tape will be back.

At one point last night as we surfed down the 500th bonsai pipeline wave, I swear I saw the tube of a breaking wave over Tery’s head. It’s daunting in the dark but fun.

Henry and I have been on best behavior all morning as we bounced between thunder squalls in “typical mid ocean weather” whatever that means as I have never been out here before.  As I finish up, the boys are back at it in our customary 30 knots of wind.

Finally a note on Larry’s skills as a navigator. There are a lot of fast boats and talented crews out here and no amount of fast sailing would put us in the place we are now unless the navigator did an absolute amazing job. And Larry has. We have a long way to go but there isn’t a navigator I would rather have.

Actually one last thing, we smell like goats and that’s an insult to goats. Collette has taken up mushroom farming in the soaking, steaming environment below. It could be worse, it could be raining. Actually, it is.

Back to the mayhem.

Paul

From The Deck of Prospector 04 July 2015 0300z

Just back at the Nav station after two great hours on deck with the crew.

As soon as I got on deck we put in a reef as the wind reached 35 knots.  We sailed the entire time with the single reef, a J4 and a genoa staysail.  The reef seemed to make no difference in speed, but a big difference in stability.  It also eliminated a lot of risk as we flew on into the night.

We were making 13-15 knots boat speed and 15-17 knots speed over ground, still getting a push from the Gulf Stream. 

I drove for 30 minutes and it was memorable.  With Scotty calling the waves coming behind us the entire team would work together to catch a wave and surf it.  As a wave would approach Scotty would tell me to turn the bow down, the main trimmer would ease the main and we would try hook the wave.  Once we caught the wave we would reverse the process and would turn the bow up, the mainsail trimmer would trim the main and off we would go.  We would continue to work the bow up and down and the main in and out to stay on the wave.  As Prospector rode the wave our speed would build and the big girl would settle in to the wave sending spray everywhere.

The first time I got our boat speed up over 20 knots for a sustained period, I was quick to point that out to my son Matthew.  He told me it was no big deal, he had done it twice already.  After two more amazing 20 knot plus sustained rides I handed over the helm to Andrew Wolf.

Surfing a wave in a sailboat feels exactly like skiing in untracked waist deep powder.  Though at night, in a boat the size of Prospector at night in the middle of the Atlantic it is a little frightening,

Happy Independence day everyone.  Off to sleep now.

Larry

From The Deck Of Prospector 03 July 2015 12:30Z

Sailing update.  Human interest piece to follow in a separate post.

Sailing Conditions:

Wind Speed: 30-40 knots

True Wind Direction: 235

Sail Combination: Reefed Main and J4.

Boat Speed: 12.5-15 knots

Speed Over Ground: 16-20 knots

Distance to Finish: 2400 nautical miles

Air Temperature: 78

Water Temperature: 79

What a difference a day makes.  After our start on July 1 we enjoyed Champagne sailing conditions.  Prospector loves the Jib Top and Genoa Staysail double headed rig and we were sailing very fast and very comfortably.  Several of us remarked at the time that we would likely pay for that later.  Unfortunately the payback came far too early on July 2nd and 3rd.

As you can see from the tracker we spent the better part of the first two days heading to the southeast.  That was no accident.  Our big picture strategy was to get as far to the south as we could to get ahead of a cold front and ride it east.  Pulling that off kept us in stronger winds in advance of the front.  It would also take us to the Gulf Stream where we would pick up 2-3 knots of favorable current.  Forecasts indicated that the front would become stationary at about 40N.  With all that in mind we set an initial way point at 40        30n x 69 42 w at a warm eddy at the top of the Gulf Stream that would give us a 1-2 knot push to the south.

Things were going smoothly enough until the wind got light and went right.  This led to the first of many sail changes over the next 36 hours.  We took down the Jib Top we had put up at Brenton Reef and put up the fractional Code Zero (FRO).  This set up lasted an hour until the webbing for the FRO broke bringing all hands on deck for an emergency take down.  The JT went back up and we continued to the southeast.

After 75 nm and three more sail changes we found the Warm Eddy right where it was supposed to be.  Sailing in the Gulf Stream brings both benefits and challenges.  The benefit is favorable current.  The challenges are finding it and staying in it, together with frequent weather changes and numerous squalls.  We got a lot of both the good and the bad.  As soon as the water temperature shot up to 80 degrees and we picked up the favorable current we got our first squall.  The good news was we saw it coming and were prepared. 

Three hours after we entered the warm eddy we lost it and found ourselves in 2-3 knots of foul current.  We tried sailing to the north and we tried sailing to the south but nothing we did got us out of the foul current and back in to a fair current.  To make matters worse, the wind went left and got very light.  We were not happy campers.  We were giving up a lot of distance in our move to the south and struggling to make it work.  Our boat speed dropped to 10 knots and our speed over ground dropped to 8 knots.  Our tide gribs and satellite imagery indicated we should be in favorable, not foul current.  Our navigator was not a happy camper.  We looked though our portholes to check the keel and rudder for sea weed and found nothing.  Frustrations mounted as the other boats in our fleet were posting better speed and   sailing a better course.  They also seemed to be in the better wind we had headed further south for.  After a lot of debate we sucked it up, stopped fussing about and sailed to the next spot we thought the wind and the Gulf Stream might be.

At 0250 Z we found the Gulf Stream again.  We turned east and put up an A6 in 18 kts of wind.  Our boat speed increased to 12 knots and, in favorable current again, our speed over ground increased to 14 knots.  Our big picture strategy was beginning to work.  We began to gain back some of what we had lost to the other yachts in our fleet.  As we progressed further in to the core of the Gulf Stream the wind showed up too, building in to the middle 20’s.  Paul McDowell and Henry Little manned the helm as our boat speed increased to a consistent 20 knots and our speed over ground increased to 23-25 knots.  Water was washing over the decks constantly and everyone on deck was getting soaked.  They didn’t care.  They were enjoying the ride. 

Just as Paul and Henry began to consider reducing sail in the building wind a squall hit at 0450 Z.  This time we were not prepared.  All hands were called on deck to get the kite down.  We were too late, in a 40 knot gust the kite, new this year and a weapon for us, exploded.  We wrestled the remains below decks, counted heads to make sure all were aboard, which they were, set the J4 and reefed the main.

We are still in that combination now.  Flying down the track.  Going east at last.  Climbing up the leaderboard.  Our strategy finally  paying off.

From The Deck of Prospector  0630 2 July 2015

Great sailing conditions continue!  Wind 252T at 20-23 kts.  Boatspeed 10.5-11.5kts.  Still in JT and GS.  Course 130. Spectacular night.  Gorgeous full moon providing lots of light.