Paul Cayard's Whitbread Log
Leg 6: São Sebastião to Ft. Lauderdale
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. . . stuff rattling, shaking, flapping, spray flying, lightning going off, thunder, and all of
us wrestling sails down on the deck and body-slamming them, just
like they do in Big Time Wrestling, to hold them down . . . you know, boys like that kind of
stuff.
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Day 15 - March 28, 1998
1122 GMT
24° 31'N, 073° 20'W
Place: 2nd; distance behind of 1st-place boat: 19.5 miles
Miles to Ft. Lauderdale: 379
From: Paul Cayard, Skipper, EF Language
I am not too happy with the way we have sailed the last 3 days.
Basically, we had this leg in hand and proceeded to give it
back by not understanding that the east was, for many reasons, the
place to be. Silk cut went ripping by at Barbuda and Swedish
Match was up in the passing lane until we finally got our heads
screwed on straight and went up there ourselves yesterday, a day
late and more than a dollar short.
Yesterday's frontal passing of the so called, "Discipated Front"
was a little more than discipated. As Rudi wrote, we got slammed
by 40 knots on the nose for an hour or two. We even had a guest
appearance by the skipper on the bow for those sail changes. The
water is still 84°F, so it is not real world to be up there in those
conditions: it was kind of fun . . . stuff rattling, shaking,
flapping, spray flying, lightning going off, thunder, and all of
us wrestling sails down on the deck and body-slamming them, just
like they do in Big Time Wrestling, to hold them down . . . it was
what we call a shit fight . . . you know, boys like that kind of
stuff.
The story now is that the wind should blow from the east all the
way to the barn, gradually getting lighter as we go. We have just
under 400 miles left, so with any luck we will be in on Sunday
evening.
Tactically, there are not many passing lanes left. We
have to go through "hole-in-the-wall" on the Bahama Bank, leaving
the north end of Eleuthera to port, down the Northwest Providence
Channel, leaving Great Stirrup and Great Isaac to the south, and then
across the Gulf Stream to Ft. Lauderdale.
For those of you who used to race the real SORC, you will remember these turning points
as part of the Miami-Nassau race. While I have raced in Nassau
many times over the years in my Star boat, I have not been down
the channel and across the Stream in 10 years, so I am kind of
looking forward to tomorrow.
We will see what tonight has in store for us; maybe a few more
potholes left in the road.
