North Atlantic Pounding

Position Sept 16, 11:00:00
Lat: 044 degrees 31.350 North
Long: 039 degrees 09.450 West
Heading: 053 degrees
Speed Over Ground: 8.5 Knots

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The night before last proved to be a real test for the recently refit Le Pingouin. We had a pretty intense 45-50 knot North Atlantic pounding and she took it in good stride with only minor jobs being added to our checklist for the final prep in France. With the start of the race creeping up on October 17, we will have our work cut out for us. A small tear in our very stellar new mainsail is a frustration, but we know what we need to do to change the lazy bag and reef setup to keep the rain and sea water from taking such a toll. 
  
We’ve made nice headway despite the beating and laid down a few good 24 hour runs, which means our friends Igor and Julia (current hurricanes in the Atlantic if you haven’t been following the weather as closely as we are) won’t mess things up too much. I can tell you by looking at the grib files that there is no way I would want to be where we were two days ago in the coming week.  Yikes! These Atlantic transats during tropical season can present some interesting situations! So following our great 24 hour runs, we are currently parked up in a ridge that is dogging us. Thanks for checking in on our progress. We are looking forward to arrival in France! Keep up with the blog, Facebook and Twitter on our website at www.oceanracing.org.

Best Regards,
Brad