Andante of Mersey - All to do with Wind
I hope you all read Bobs excellent blog re leaving Cape Town and starting the Heinekin Cape to Bahia race on www.worldcruising/worldarc.net, because since then, over the passed week, our only concern has been the strength and direction of the wind.
This leg to Bahia de Salvador, with an up to 36 hr stop in St Helena, was portrayed as the idyllic cruising leg with the worlds most constant trade winds ie 12-18kts from the SE blowing us along whilst the crew lounged around on the aft deck, sudocoing, fishing in these plentiful waters or just dozing in the sun. Well that was before the World Arc Rally joined in. True to form weatherwise the nice things didnt happen. Two days out the wind swung round to the NW and stayed there for 3 days. As its a race, usage of the engine is penalised and in any case many yachts don't carry much fuel and are loath to use it when one still has 1500 nms to go. This caused justifiable concern. As it happens Andante has large tanks so we motored into the wind and achieved, albeit before the race officials incorporated engine hours, a good place amonst the leaders. Things are now catching up with us. The tailenders, on the light SE breeze, are over hauling us. Our moments of false glory are coming to an end but it was nice whilst they lasted. To make matter worse we seem to be crossing a nautical desert and no fish, large or small, are to be seen! With all this travail around you may find it hard to believe but morale is high - maybe because the beer ration has been doubled from one can per day to two and Andante although over weight is in first class order.
Love/best regards as appropriate to all from Ann, Bob, Chris, Derek and me. PS as we have not heard how SRUFC are doing we can only imagine that the pitches are frozen and that makes us feel really sad.
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