BACK IN LELYSTAD

After the race I went back to home to catch up with work, Janneke (6) her birthday party and so on.  Harry sailed the boat back to Holland in remarkeable style. Single handed, and with only a short fuel stop in Yarmouth. Very well done. An uneventful trip, was his comment when I joined him yesterday to clean up the boat. The boat has suffered no damage at all during the RB&I race but the sails need attention. The to do list for next years big event (AZAB) is starting to grow longer and longer.

LEG 5

One of our competitors described leg 5 as a lesson in patience. We had to deal with a large ridge of high pressure right above the Channel, slow moving and without significant change. Under the high the wind is rather difficult to forecast accurately. Given the warm weather the sea breeze effects caused major changes in the wind strength and direction closer to the coast. Grib files were not very usefull. We had to deal with very light airs and periods without any wind at all. 

At the anchor right on top of the Channel Tunnel. It was not easy to lift the anchor. We used a winch and put serious tension on the line, like a high E string on a guitar. That wasn't enough so we sailed to boat over the anchor to force it out. Suddendly the anchor came loose and off we went (in only 2 knots of wind) and we could take the anchor in to find out that the cross bar had snapped!

  

Apparantly we pulled a gap in the ceiling of the tunnel. Oh no, we saild, all the water will now float into the tunnel, the Channel will be empty  and we will have to walk to Plymouth.

A very tactical leg. On the one hand you would like to stay near the coast to take advantage of the sea breezes and to be able to anchor in shallow water. On the other hand the general wheater situation showed a (predominantly) westerly breeze that would veer to south-west later. This would justify to sail on the starbord tack away from the shore and to tack after the shift and lay Startpoint. We compromised between those two and when the wind finally settled in SWerly direction we were past Portland Bill, tacked and we could make it to Dartmouth.

Startpoint has proved to be really difficult to negotiate. This cape caused huge local changes in the wind, and closer inshore there was no wind at all. But we finally made it around this last cape before the finishline in Plymouth. A nice evening breeze did not die out in the evening and on 20.46 we crossed the line.

  

On the balcony of the Royal Western a nice crowed welcomed us in with support for the last meters and applause for us on the finishline. We finished as the 2nd VQ32. We gained significantly on Vandal (1st) in the last leg, but we could not overtake them. The gap with Velocity Girl (3rd) stayed the same. We finished about 18 hours before Jager, who were only 5 miles behind us near Dover. This shows how difficult this leg has been. 

This Round Britain started with very good winds and the fleet was a few days ahead of the normal schedule in Lerwick. The second half of the race was really slow in light airs all the way from Lerwick to Plymouth and not once did we pull in a reef.

It has been a very good race for Home of Jazz, with a wide variety of conditions. We were a good team. Again I learned a lot about the boat and about myself.  

LEG 5 SO FAR

Leg 4 has changed the race completely. Vandal has extended its lead to
24 hrs. We have confirmed our 2nd position cause Velocity Girl finished
about 24 hrs after Home of Jazz. The differences are so big that it
looks rather unlikely to change. But you never know in very light airs.
After the start of leg 5 we had good winds until just past Dover. Harry
anchored in a nice spot: just on top of the entrance to the Channel
Tunnel, really close to the shore in 12 meters water, to avoid the
current which would set us backwards. We stayed at the anchor from 11am
to 4pm. In light Werly winds we made it (finally) past Dungeness. During
the night a nice breeze picked up and we rounded Beachy Head early this
morning.
Today again calms weather in the forecast. We cant anchor where we are
now (too deep), so we hope that the breeze will stay for a while.
All well on board of Home of Jazz.

LERWICK TO LOWESTOFT

We started very early in the morning and could hoist the spinaker to make easy meiles to the south. When the wind dropped we knew that it would not soon come back since a big area of high pressure was directly on the race course. The actual wind was often significantly different from the grib files.

Not easy to find the right way through the High. Richard and Sharon decided to go off on a flyer by heading SE to go around the High. They went as far out as the Norwegian coast. This very difficult option did not really work out for them, so we could confirm our 2nd position in the (unofficial) VQ32 class. After several long periods without any wind at all the wind finally went West.

For the final push the tide took us up to great Yarmouth, but the tide turned against us before we could get to Lowesoft. The last 10 miles took almost 6 hours. We had to tack upwind and against the current. To get out of the current as much as possible we went really close to the shore. We went so close that we could speak to the sunseekers on the beach.

This leg has resulted in huge gaps between the competitors. For the fifth and last leg the wheather looks very light again. It will be a tidal game. Play it right and you can win significantly. It will be important to try and not make any major mistakes with the tide and to keep the focus on racing in these very light conditions.

NORTHERLY WIND

The strong northerly wind has gone. Some of our competitors must have
made huge gains in tuff condiions (cold!) The NW-erly that we have had
during the first day of leg 4 is now about to die out and we expect
calms in the afternoon. Tactical this will be a crucial part of the
race. Who will get to the new wind first, and how. Acccoridng to the
routing suggestions by Expedition software, we have taken a slightly
westerly coarse to be in a better position. I will get a new grib file
now to see if there are changes in the forecast.

PICTURES LEG 2 AND 3

In Lerwick we now have a proper network connection and I am now uploading pictures. Hester and Janneke came over to Lerwick. Great! They are staying with Raewyn, Leslies wife. Still a pretty cold stiff breeze from the north. But during the next leg the wind will die out and we will have long calms. Big party in Lerwick!  

LERWICK

The wind veered from SW to W and NW when we rounded Muckle Flugga and picked up to 30-36 knots. This made for spectacular fast sailing around this magnificent headland in bright evening sunshine. After the gybe we were down to 2 reefs and a jib to protect the damaged main a bit. Still we were doing double digits all the time, max 15,6. Really long surfs down to Noss Head where we had to go upwind towards the finishline in Lerwick sound. Rather cold with only 8 degrees and 35 kts on the noze.

In Lerwick the sailmaker (Tommy) has immediately stitched the main. What a great service of Tommy, the same guy that helped us back in 1993.