VOR: PUMA - Fast Miles are a Good Thing

by Kenny Read (skipper)

A quick and gentle doldrums has lead to yet another drag race across the Atlantic- T-Blue with the jump, and the rest of us nip and tuck-careening through the tropics toward the North Atlantic.

I guess by now there are no surprises, especially when I say that we are in a very close battle with the two Ericsson boats. But we have a new friend joining our little grudge match. T-Black has joined the party and made it a four way sprint for Boston at this point. We have beautiful but very wet sailing conditions- 90 degree jib reaching in 18-20 knots of wind. We’re chewing up the miles after having done about 430 over the last 24 hours. Did I mention it was wet on deck?

And so it is with trade winds- a band of wind about as predictable as any in the world. It leads to a different style of sailing, not the "sail changing world championships" we have had over the past week. This is more "throw up all the rag you can and hold on" style of sailing. Fine tuning is a must. But at the same time, life on board is about as predictable as we get. Not like earlier in the leg where you lie down to sleep knowing full well that the wake up call for a sail change could be and will be minutes away.

Stories on deck are still unique on this yacht even with Jerry Kirby absent on this leg. He was home on his couch sending golf "Masters" updates last Sunday, and my brother Brad is key at sending American sports scores. Our news specialist, Guy Swindles from the Volvo office is the "official" sports news reporter to the fleet with emails of scores just about every other day. I give him a hard time though, that he somehow has missed American football, basketball, baseball and hockey- the big four in the states. He claims that those sports don't really exist as they are played outside of Europe and therefore are not news worthy. I am wearing him down though. He actually included baseball scores (begrudgingly) in his last update. I'll wear him out.

As we were exciting the doldrums, we very quickly and quietly crossed the equator for the final time on this around the world adventure- an equator crossing for the fourth time in fact. Since there were no "Pollywogs" onboard (first time equator crossers) the event came and went very nonchalant. On deck I guess a Southern "Hemisphereian" handed the helm to a Northern "Hemisphereian". No rum, no cigars, no member of the crew had a baby at home- nothing cool at all. I slept through it all at the nav station. Ricky claims he has a photo of this intensity for my future viewing pleasure.

In general, all is good onboard the fine yacht- a few days of the same old, same old. I guess I shouldn't complain about things settling down to a dull roar. Fast miles are a good thing.

PUMA Ocean Racing
Volvo Ocean Race