Leg 7 Race 2 .. Super sneak

10.06.2024

It has become apparent, to both those on and off the boats, that in the midst of a rum fuelled braii, our skippers have been sneakily scheming to stick it to the man. At 1200UTC, on the approach to the gap between Cuba and Haiti, all 11 yachts simultaneously entered stealth mode. Many on board did not know about this, with confused messages returning from home being their only indicator that anything had happened; an email thread spelling childlike giggles from our proud professionals was confirmation of the great collusion (I believe the word of the day was tomfoolery, or was it shenanigans?). Any speculation as to whether this was orchestrated to obtain a brief shoreside soirée in Jamaica will be wholly quelled by all crewmembers…

It did, however, make the sailing quite exciting, despite the increasingly light winds. As is the custom with the initiation of stealth mode, when not around other (non-Clipper) vessels, we are permitted to mute our AIS tracking systems; thus leading to a loss of information on the surrounding yachts’ speeds, headings, bearings, etc. Our basis for discerning the performance of our adversaries was based solely off of sight; hand bearing widget compass thingies came out to tell of gains or losses, binoculars were used often to gander at sail plans. We were first to change from Yankee 2 to the Yankee 1 as the wind whispered in Cuba’s shadow, giving us a slight gain as we reached 6knots whilst others did 4. However, as night closed in, the dark revealed several steaming lights, indicating several boats decisions to hoist windseekers, probably a better option at the 55degree wind angle we were sailing to, as well as a Code 1 hoist from the Other Chinese boat, ambitious, effective. Ha Ha passed us swiftly as we stuck to our guns, but their gain slowed as the wind came back forward.

The fleet began to spread through the short sections of windlessness. Ha Ha and the Other Chinese boat pulled ahead of Pu(n)ta and our Dragon by 5 miles, whilst the rest of the fleet disappeared to over 10 miles behind us. The Charity boat’s light was the only one visible as they continued to sail fast behind us. As we closed in on the Bahamas, the two leaders pinched high to claim points from the scoring gate, nearly 70miles off the rhumb line. We decided to continue on our quest for penants and pointed straight for Washington; we overtook Pu(n)ta as they bore off to the west and sighed with relief as the position report revealed our return to 1st position.

Bekezela, not sure what you’re up to. Either trying out a superbly audacious plan to take the eastern gate route, or misunderstanding that that’s where the rest of the fleet went (they didn’t…) has left them 67miles behind. I really hope that it works out for them, they’ll need a little luck though.

Butterflies were briefly beating softly over the deck in the early evening glow. Dressed in white-daffodil, they went fleetingly between green, red, orange, and blue across our pit in search of sustenance in the coiled fibres of our sheets, halyards, and foreguys; at midnight we would enter the Bermuda Triangle to continue our own migration through the West-Atlantic. As the morning sun surfaced, our now fitted kite fluttered gently in the light breeze of the new following winds, a few vacant wings still on the deck.

Will x