One Girls Ocean Challenge

11am Tuesday June 15

Diane telephoned about 10:30am this morning: Monday evening was pretty slow slogging, at right angles to the current. But, we successfully made it into the cold water eddy we were seeking. [See garbled sat-phone message of Sunday]. As the night wore on, the wind got light. Midnight, no wind. And we found ourselves in the biggest hole.

Then, the fog rolled in. Then an odd noise. What’s that noise? Can’t see any freighters. With the chop, no wind, bobbing in a back eddy, the sail plan was flapping and banging, most distracting and very annoying. Down came the sails. Turns out, the noise was coming from our rig and sail plan. All night, the fog was thick, wet and just gross, everything was too sickly to deal with.

But Monday, we had made it into the cold water eddy. Through the night, from about midnight to 5:30am, with no sails, we rode the hard won, cold eddy, to drift south east directly to Bermuda. All the while, Nick & I got caught up on our sleep. If you’re going to be in a hole for a few hours, get one with two knots of current going in the right direction.

This morning, the sun came up, bringing some breeze. We have a white sail plan up. The code zero [huge headsail] is on deck in anticipation that the wind will continue deeper, and we will be able to hoist. We are sailing 4.8 to 5 kts through the water. Add in the favourable current from our cold eddy and we are progressing to Bermuda at 6 to 7 kts.

It’s a beautiful sea this morning. Lots of Man Of War (a type of jelly fish) and Sargasso (a thick seaweed). We are frequently checking we are not dragging any seaweed. That would be very slow.

Diane mentioned the race communications restrictions, and a competitor and… the satellite passed ending the telephone call. They are in good spirits – sleep helps with that – and I could hear Nick in the background, and some laughter.

You can follow them along using the Bermuda Ocean Race’s iBoat fleet tracker or the One Girl’s Ocean Challenge’s Spot Tracker.