24 January 2008
Temenos: Snail’s pace
Temenos II has hit the high pressure and the average speed of the monohull has
plummeted. Michèle and Dominique are trying to extract themselves from this zone
of calm, but at a snail’s pace this isn’t going to be an easy task. The glimmer
of hope which was to enable them to round to the East of this zone has vanished
With their eyes glued to the instruments, concentrated on getting the boat to
make headway, the two co-skippers hope to rapidly escape the clutches of this
high pressure, which is threatening to expand out even further.
Aboard, the duo is getting a taste of the summer temperatures of the Southern
hemisphere and have finally been able to peel off their foulies.
“It is really hot today. We have 24° down below and the water is at 20°. I woke
up in a sweat earlier, this heat is wearing as we’re not used to it anymore"
said Michèle. “We have 6 knots of wind at the moment. We have had to drop the
spinnaker as with so little wind it was impossible to carry it any longer. We
switched over to a code 0 last night. It’s not really a surprise as we knew it
was going to be difficult. The routing at midnight tonight gives us just 3
knots.
Yesterday the grib files gave us a little glimpse of a passage along the Eastern
edge of the high pressure but the situation has changed since then.
The high pressure is set to increase still further so we really have to get out
of here before it stretches even more. We have 150 miles to go. At 6 knots you
don't have any choice; you just have to endure it more than anything else. We’re
trying to go as fast as possible to make good our escape. We’ve gone back to the
automatic pilot as it helms better than us in these conditions. With so little
wind we're not really having to trim. We're just on top of the pilot to follow
the slight variations in the wind. We're being careful not to destabilise the
boat as we don’t want to take the power out of it as it tries to make headway.
Miracle! We have a 'gust' of 8 knots! I get the feeling this is going to be a
very long day.”
Kate Jennings
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