Scarlet Oyster - Scarlet day 10, The Beautiful South?!

Been a few days since we wrote anything, been a bit busy working out what
weather is up to and catching lots of fish, a Scarlet ARC 1st!

As we had assumed there has been no middle option on the weather, so we have
been forced to sail down south of 13 deg N, plus side it is warm, downside,
it is too hot! Other plus is the bigger fish! So far we have hooked 10fish
and kept 4 of them, two mahi Mahi, 4kg and 10kg, a Wahoo at 4kg and a big
fat Tuna at 13kg! The freezer is more full than at the start!

I think I have to accept the N route was likely quicker, however the risks
of it outweighed the gains in my view, our strongest competitor in class is
as always the Quokka, with Philippe back in the reins, we match raced each
other for the first 3 days, never more than 1.5miles apart, they have
optimised with a no.4 jib, ideal for when the spin is up, this is a strategy
I have previously employed, however lots of jib reaching has take a toll on
them, our much larger furling jib configuration proving much faster in the
conditions since we were alongside.

The Northern route also required commitment to work, a few boats opting to
try and get S after being North, perhaps due to one of the forecast models
showing potentially 30knots wind on the nose on the N route. Only 2 in our
class stuck with the uncompromised N approach and have done well out of it
(Aphrodite and Palpatine). We are seperated on rating from Aphrodite by a
meer 2% now, but a massive 800plus miles of Latitude!

We have some tricky conditions to deal with in the next 12hrs, and suffered
a lack of wind last night, but after that we should (fingers crossed) be
rewarded with a trade wind run in to St Lucia, speed will finally rise!

Those North have an apparently clearer run down, albeit in a little less
wind than we should enjoy, it seems that the South may yet pay off!

Our latest weather routing showed us in the bar first followed by Quokka
then Palpatine and Aphrodite, Aphrodite beating Palpatine on handicap,
however as we have seen nothing is set in stone and the weather can
certainly change again!

All is well on board, we have made a mini bimini to shelter from the worst
of the mid day sun, sunhats and factor 50 a very much 'de rigour'.

The last 3 nights have been clear with some awesome stars and many shooting
stars as a bonus, night time temps on deck are rather pleasant, its just the
midday heat that is a little hot!

Our route saw us further South than the finish line before our halfway
party! That has never happened to us before! Halfway was toasted with
fresh Tuna Sashimi and Taitinger Champagne (donated as usual by my amazing
wife Sarah)

I expect most people will have got bored and stopped reading by now so I
best sign off

Best from a rather hot and sweaty Scarlet

Ross