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Champagne - ALL IS WELL



Dear Friends.

First of all, we are all well, which of course is important. Mainly for us, may be also for you. Secondly, we had our ups and downs, and of that plenty.

We actually had a good start. Tactics worked, and we were with roughly 30 others in the front having passed the starting line. The weather was lousy, a lot of wind, but that suits Champagne. Having passed Gran Canaria we turned after a while West. It must have happened after midnight , and we don't know why, but our Genoa developed a cut in the top third , so we have been running with a reef in our best sail, meaning we have the full main out and a hugely reefed Genoa. That makes the boat totally unstable on the run, meaning we take the wind now on the quarter, but for speed and direction it is not optimal. The only luck we have so far are the very strong winds. Whilst some reported BF 5-6, we had from Thursday to Friday night constantly BF 7 with gusts up to 54 knots ! Regards to the weathermen.

Then disaster struck again. In one of these squalls our Genoa pole which was lashed to the mast, became loose at the bottom bracket, swung twice to each side, broke loose at the top, crashed onto the deck and vanished overboard in an instant....without leaving a trace and any damage. Now that's what I call a clear cut. SInce then however we have been deprived of our second best sailing option, the poled out Genoa. Now we have a second disadvantage. Of course we will try best, but it is frustrating , because the third plan, using our Parasailor, is not feasible. For it the winds are much too unstable, wind speed last night jumped between BF 2 to BF 6 to BF 10, all in 3 minutes.

But don;t worry you lot out there, we do not give up. And we still enjoy our three course breakfasts !

Master Mike


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