May 10, 2012 13:26:00 UTC
42° 24.60 N
061° 38.08 W
Heading: 67°
Speed: 19.8 Knots
We are chasing one of sailing’s most prestigious records and
we are trying to beat a very fast pace set by Mari Cha IV. Here is the current situation. First, we
have embraced a much different approach from a weather strategy point of
view. Mari Cha IV left New York
behind a cold front on NW winds that carried them much of the way to England
before they had to tack on a high pressure area for the last third of the
attempt. This meant they were on a fast port reach until tacking to
starboard allowing the wind to free them back to a starboard reach for the
final approach to England. The opportunity that presented itself to us is
the opposite. We left New York ahead of an arriving cold front on
Southerly winds that should carry us much of the way Across the Atlantic and
then we will need to gybe to port and hook into a low pressure system to the
north pushing us to the finish. Both theories work well but we need the
wind to stay steady and it has been a bit lighter than forecast for the several
of hours of the voyage.
The other point of significance is that we are doing our
attempt in the spring instead of the fall which means spring icebergs south and
east of Newfoundland. I will talk more about icebergs in tomorrow’s blog
as that will definitely be on the front of our brains for the following
day. Today is all about trying to stay in the best wind strength possible
as the forecasted 22 knots has been elusive and we are currently in wonderful
tight reaching conditions of 17 knots. Normally lovely, but not the crazy
record breaking conditions we need. So our fingers are crossed for the
big noisy show that Maserati is so
gifted at.
Life on board is getting chilly and it is wet, but nothing
like when we will sail through the North Atlantic cocktail in a couple days.
I can’t decide if that cocktail should be served with crushed or full size ice
cubes but neither sounds very good to me at the moment, and I happen to know
that a mixture is on order.
Ciao for now from Brad and the Maserati Boys!
Check out our tracking and Maserati route versus Mari Cha IV: http://maserati.soldini.it/cartografia/?lang=en
Here is the latest video we shot on board Maserati: http://maserati.soldini.it/qui-e-arrivato-il-vento/?lang=en
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