These blogs from three boats cover every sailor’s various states of mind: awe, frustration, rapture, fear, focus, patience, distraction, love of the sea and nature, and all-out competitiveness regardless of the conditions.
Inisharon, Mark D’Arcy, "We are struggling"
June 20, 1730: Aloha, race fans. All is well on Inisharon, although we are struggling with the weather and currents. The currents are not where they are supposed to be, which is creating a lot of havoc with our strategy and plan. Additionally, as the low pressure moves out of the area it leaves a vacuum, meaning no wind. As a result we are struggling to work as hard as possible to find air and get the boat moving in a direction towards Bermuda. It is tough driving for the helmsman as it is a very narrow band of angles we can sail with the wind behind us and maintain course to Bermuda. This combined with heavy seas make required focus and concentration at the helm.
Strange as it may sound, this is what offshore sailing is about. Challenge, sea, uncertainty, and great friends and family to sail with. Lots more sailing to do and the trick is to stay focused and maintain drive. Driving her like we stole it.
Vamp, AJ Evans, “Spectacular evening”
June 21, 0230: Spectacular evening of sailing here on a gentle sea with a decent breeze under a full moon and stars. Nights like these sell the next race.
June 21, 0830: Excellent, especially this year. Following last night, it's been a typically beautiful morning with sun and those puffy soft yellow/purple/gray clouds, 10-15kts WSW.
Warrior Won, HL Devore, crew and families
June 21, 0930: Cruising Club of America members: HL DeVore, Carter Holliday. Storm Trysail Club members: HL DeVore, Roland Schulz, Doug Lynn, Christopher Sheehan. Larchmont YC members: Joost-Olan Sheehan, his father Christopher Sheehan, HL DeVore, Roland Schulz, Christopher Sheehan, Ryan Zupon, Peter Carpenter, Doug Lynn, Andres de Lasa.
Inisharon, Mark D’Arcy, "We are dialed in"
June 21, 0824: Well, race fans, it’s a drag race from here on in. Gorgeous weather, consistent 12-17kts of breeze and we trucking along. Tom Tobin, Steve and I had a super run this morning and did a little squall hunting without much success, but clocked some fun miles.
This is the kind of sailing we all dream of when at work, this is truly wonderful sailing. Weather is good all the rest of the way, so now we need to stay focused, put the pedal down and hopefully reel in some of the competition.
Breakfast sandwiches this morning tasted great and after a cup of coffee and watch change we are dialed in.
The boat has performed well, no issues that would impair safety or performance. Tom replaced a fuse in the battery monitor and we think we have a calibration issue with our speedo, which seems to suggest we have constant foul current, which likely contributed to our lack of confidence in what part of the Gulf Stream features we were in. If a boat’s instruments get out of calibration, you can easily see how this can affect one’s interpretation of what is going on, and thus where they might be relative to the ocean current. Will let you know where we come out on it— another small project to occupy one’s time and mind while sailing to Bermuda.
Got to get back to gorgeous sailing.
Inisharon out
