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Hada - Hada Log



HADA Day 10 -- Endless Blue
Post #7 -  Wednesday, December 4th,  2013, 15:41 UTC (GMT)

Day 10 on HADA.  It’s sunny, seas are calm, and we’ve been in solid trade winds running 14-15 knots for the past 30+ hours.

HADA is slicing like a knife through butter at an average speed of ~8 knots/hour, we’ve done almost 200 miles in the last 24 hours.   Our latitude at 14 degrees 7 minutes north is almost exactly due east of St. Lucia.

We would like to head a bit more south as there seems to be even more wind blowing there, but we can’t do that at the moment because it would require going further downwind, which we cannot do with the sails we have.  Turns out the A2 spinnaker needs a bit more work before we can press it into use, and as soon as we can we will do that so we can pick up a tad more wind.

It appears that race rankings have us still in the back of the pack, but we think they are not reliable indicators at this time except for the top 5 or so.  For the rest of the field, a lot will depend on who can best navigate some various holes in the wind that do seem to exist north of us.  It appears we do have a shot at getting solid wind on our (most southerly) route, which, if true, would allow us to gain on the field.

Well, that’s the strategy in theory.  As Ed likes to say:  In theory, practice and theory are the same.  In practice, they aren’t.

We’ll have to see.  The next 3-4 days will probably decide where we truly end up in the pack as we get closer to the finish line.

HADA’s rhythm has now been steady for hours on end, and, the other night, she rocked synchronously at times with the piano rhythms of  The Art of the Fugue, by   Pierre-Laurent Aimard, playing over my headset.  The firmament was lit by the  stars, and the plankton off the transom was playfully illuminating the water streaming past us.  It was a sublime moment.

At this point in the voyage, HADA has logged 4085 nautical miles since leaving the Hanse factory in October, with an overall average of 7 knots per hour.  So far  her maiden voyage  from Greifswald, Germany has had her pass through the Kiel Canal, out the English Channel, sail down the west coasts of France, Spain,  Portugal, then part of the way down the west coast of Africa, into Las Palmas.  From there we have continued further south along Africa’s west coast, then diagonally through the Cape Verde Islands, and now we are running due west toward the new world.  I am happy to report that we have "only" 1725 miles to next landfall, with the boat and crew having overcome various challenges at various points of the journey, so far all of them successfully.

We are  surrounded by endless blue for hundreds of miles in all directions.

HADA has come into her own.

André


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