If our last post (Nov 25th) closed with “… and happy to be underway”, this one must start with “hoping to get going soon!”
After some amazing sailing this past monday in beautiful weather and nice winds, Stuart’s reel went “whiiiirrrrr” and we hooked a Mahi. The boys wrestled to pull him in; alas, we hate to admit the little fish got away just before we got the gaff from below deck to secure him. Arghh.
Undoubtedly such a defeat could not be endured for long, and we’ve since caught a nice little tuna, which made a great meal - turned in sesame seeds, pan roasted, alongside a serving of wasabi mashed potatoes (pressure cooked) and beautifully sautéed eggplant! Hail to the chefs Ed & Anton!
Monday night also saw us with our first real setback: our A2 gennaker (used to get extra speed downwind) severed itself near the clew, rendering the sail into two pieces, and completely unusable. However, Stu, not being one to take ANY defeat, whipped out his sewing kit and over the course of the last 48 hours spent at least 12 hours steadily sewing (pic) - the sail will be back together soon!!!!
Tuesday night we experienced the onset of another setback, this one a bit more troubling: very low wind, slowing our rate of progress to only 2-4 knots for most of Wednesday.
It is now Thursday morning, Thanksgiving day, 4:28am EST. For the past 16 hours wind has been completely absent, with our rate of progress now zero. The good news from a competitive perspective: the position reports from ARC show that we are no worse off than most of the others in our class. While we are further east than everyone, we are also further south than most. Time and conditions will tell how it will all play out.
For now we are sitting on a plate of glass, with barely a ripple on the surface of the ocean. HADA at times is doing slow pirouettes in place, and we are using the time to fix things (including the A2) and enjoying the view.
So for those of you watching our position via the ARC website, do not be concerned. All is very well aboard HADA, and everyone in our crew is in great shape.
Since team HADA does not give up, we are doing the next best thing: Pedaling self propulsion, courtesy of Ed!
Ha-ha HADA! Happy Thanksgiving to all!! We’ll have wind again, soon!!!
André
PS: The crew is sending their best to all!
PSS: it is now looking likely that landfall in St. Lucia will be later than originally guessed. New predictions will have to wait we actually get some wind again.