11.02.2008
A short term reduction in speed for Temenos II
Arriving level with the Canaries, Temenos II has seen a slight pause in her
progress. This reduction in speed had been expected by Michèle and Dominique,
but it should rapidly turn to their favour with the arrival of a new front at
the end of tonight. Throughout yesterday, Temenos II continued to rack up the
miles, increasing its lead over Mutua Madrilena to 244 miles. A substantial but
insufficient lead in terms of preventing a comeback by her pursuer. On an E'ly
heading since yesterday, the Spanish duo is continuing its tactical offensive,
aware that a lot could still happen between here and the finish in Barcelona.
Whilst the leader Paprec-Virbac 2 is expected in the Catalan town late this
evening, Michèle and Dominique don't yet have the finish line in their mental or
physical sights. With 1,178 miles left to go, the duo isn’t likely to make
Barcelona before 18th February.
And for the time being, between ensuring the weather strategy, the manœuvres and
the trimming, as well as containing their adversary, there is plenty to keep
them both busy and preoccupied aboard and prevent any wanderings on the Spanish
coast…
“We’ve begun to hit some Wly, NW'ly wind" recounted Dominique when contacted
this afternoon, “there’s a big, very long swell which is gradually moving in on
us. These are the first signs of the low. We expected to be slowed more than
this but we're managing to make headway and for the time being we're escaping
this zone quite well. At the end of the night, a front will catch up with us.
The wind will shift round to the South and we should reindex in this air flow up
to the Moroccan coast. There we are expecting to fall into a buffer zone with
light airs and then we should reach Gibraltar on the 15th.
It feels like we're being rocked on this big swell. It's sunny and the
temperature is still very mild with some idyllic living conditions. We’ve sent a
message of congratulations to Jean-Pierre and Damian so as to share in this
moment with them a little, before they’re caught up in the turmoil of the
finish. Aboard, we're not even thinking about the finish. It's still a bit far
off yet. We're so obsessed by the boat's performance, the rankings, the weather,
the routing, that we're not yet thinking about the end of the race but instead
what's in store for us in the coming days.”
Michèle indicated in her last message that the fleet aerial had broken with the
immediate result being the deprivation of high speed transmissions aboard
Temenos II. Now incapable of downloading large files, the duo is having to make
do with reduced size grib files. However, thanks to some fairly laborious work
collecting and assembling the weather information, the duo is managing to cope
with this lack of data.
"There are some magical mornings..."
These last few days the way the watches have panned out has meant that I haven't
been on deck to see the sunrises, moments which I love. (Well, you have to rest
in your bunk a bit from time to time and indulge in the selfish, comtemplative
pleasures of the solo sailor with my co-skipper).
It's been two days then that the sun has been frustrated about not having seen
me on deck, and now it has invited itself into my bunk.
Here, abeam of the little starboard hatch at the chart table, just the time for
a few furtive minutes, it is sending a few rays onto my face. I'm taking great
delight in this magical, ephemeral moment which is all mine... whilst taken
aback, my co-skipper ‘digitizes’ and immortalizes the moment, and the pilot
busies itself with keeping course.
The race continues and though Temenos II has managed to work herself up a
comfortable lead over her Spanish adversary, we are reindexing vigilant and very
active aboard and there's no question of us easing off the pace. The weather
reindexs fairly clear as far as Gibraltar but after that... after that it’s the
Mediterranean. Need I say more!
Over the past weeks, the living conditions aboard have been relatively mild. Our
need for food and our appetites have been lower and we have also managed to save
some food in preparation for this last round, which stands a good chance of
being quite long. We have managed to put aside a whole week's worth of food,
which we'll open tomorrow. We're already relishing the idea. Just a day to wait
and salivate!... Roll on tomorrow!
We’ve had to dismantle the fleet aerial, which is the big round thing in the
cockpit which ensures, when it's working that is, a high speed link with the
shore. Despite several hours work and the replacement of the mother board our
‘dinosaur egg’ just didn’t want to know! As a result we will have to forego the
video sends, the visio-conferences and more annoying still, the detailed grib
files. Fortunately the low speed satellite phone still works so that will have
to do.
I’d like to take this opportunity to mention the work of the shore crews. We try
to be as autonomous as possible aboard, but there are a number of times where we
have to call upon the technicians onshore to get some advice. Out of the
spotlight, I’d like to thank them for all their enthusiasm and for making
themselves available to us. We are essentially selfish sailors without
compunction, who often call upon their services in the middle of the night and
at weekends!
Thank you to Michel, Thierry, Mathieu, Mino, Alex and sorry to those I’ve
forgotten!
Life aboard Temenos II is continuing to the rhythm of the watches. We’re soon
going to step back into the winter climes. The temperature is being to drop and
we’re having to wear a fleece or two or three at night now…”
Kate Jennings
Expression.
P.O. Box 26,
Dartmouth,
DEVON.
TQ6 0YG
United Kingdom
+44 (0)7795 116699
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