Umiko - UMIKO Blog 2 Day 2 We go WEST!!

Dear Umiko Fans!
Welcome to Blog 2 Day 2.

I am currently off watch as I write this but went up on deck for the much anticipated Gybe. We are now on our “Making Gybe” having put quite a lot of southing in in the hope of slightly stronger winds. The good news is that the true wind is now a steady 15 so we can start making some westing. Currently our COG is very close to the Rhumb line…. This is no bad thing!

We had a cracking day yesterday. In the name of “caution is the better part of valour” we elected not to re-hoist our C2 last night after the wind backed round to the NE and went a bit lighter. This meant that we had to sail a slightly higher and slower course than we would have been able to under a kite and will have affected our position on the course. Experience has showed me that ocean racing is a marathon and not a sprint. It is much better to allow the yacht, her systems and the crew settle in at the start of a long ocean crossing. In the past I have pushed too hard at the start and had to “pick up the pieces after” which had a much more detrimental affect on our overall time.

Today with a building forecast and the prospect of bigger seas we have elected to fly our bright orange C4 and have had her up since sunrise. Our 24hr run through the water was 231nm despite all the time with the gib and the light winds we are pleased with this as our first 24hr run.

As the forecast looks like the C4 will be getting a workout we sent our French mast monkey Stephane up the rig to inspect the halyards for chafe and to attach a second halyard to the kite. He is incredibly happy at the top of the rig and currently we have our speed record of 14.6 kts while he was at the top!

The boat systems so far have been working well with the preventative maintenance enacted before the start hopefully paying dividends.

The last time I crossed the Atlantic in this direction was in 2016 with the Infiniti 46 MAVERICK. The two crossings could not be more different. While topping out at 30kts was fun on Maverick the hot showers and amazing freshly cooked food is definitely a bonus on UMIKO. With the boat looking a bit grubby below I would not have been able to get the hoover outto give the boat a clean on Maverick either!

Karina has been doing a fantastic job with an amazing Pad Tai for lunch and she is currently cooking a lamb Tagine for dinner.

I had a bit of a fishing bet with Julian White who is crewing on Scarlet Oyster and Gareth Glover on Quokka however one of the things that I did forget was a fishing line and lure so not only will I not win the bet’s but there will be no epic fishing tales in this blog. ☹

Things are going well just now … dinner is on, the sundown deck check has been completed and I will be on watch in an hour and a half. The temperature has been lovely not too hot and not too cold. Thankfully the sky’s have remained stable with no squalls we will have the RADAR on to keep an eye out but hopefully our first night with the kite up will not bring any surprises.
That’s all for now folks!

“Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going too fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”

Eddie Cantor

Olly OUT!!