Ocean Racing

Ocean racing is proving a strange world. Nothing happens very quickly - in
identical boats and similar weather it's incredibly hard to make gains on boats
around you. Take New York for example - it's about 2 weeks now that they've been
about 10 miles behind us. 10 miles is less than 1 hours sailing, but the gap has
remained consistent for well over 1000 miles now. We've helmed some incredible
conditions in that period banging out ridiculously high speeds for a sail boat,
yet when we get our 6 hourly updates there they are, still 10 miles behind. It's
enough to drive you insane, enough to want to pull over and let them past just
to enjoy a few hours of relaxation. The only thing worse would be being in 4th
place trying to catch us for 2000 miles but depsite pushing boat and crew to the
limit being unable to catch up. 

The skipper of New York sent our skipper an email 2 days ago saying simply "Christ, you guys are hard to catch". Advantage Derry. It was a huge psychological boost for us. No matter how sick we were of seeing New York 10 miles behind us, they were even more sick seeing us 10 miles ahead. While 14 days out you can console yourself into thinking that all you have to do is match us and wait for a mistake, 4 days out the chances of that mistake become more and more remote. And if the latest updates are accurate, it looks like NY have taken a dive south in desperation to give themselves some chance of making 3rd. The problem is the forecast, if accurate, is for a lull to arrive from the south which should stop them dead before they can gain any significant ground. It's brave but maybe stupid - they may be risking a safe 4th position on a flyer. 

For now we plough on with our more northerly course knowing that if we can avoid significant damage to our boat that our podium place remains ours to lose. On we race, around 96 hours away from all we yearn - a podium finish, a bed, beer, meat, friends and family, toilets that flush, flat floors, dryness. The list is almost endless, as it sometimes feels is the Pacific itself. Morale on board remains fantastic - nothing like an exciting race to focus the minds away from the petty discomforts that could at any
moment rise up to arguments. The sailing too, apart from a frustrating 6 hour
lull this afternoon, remains incredible. We're close enough to the end now
that adrenaline is overcoming any tiredenss and no doubt soon will start to
regret the end of this great adventure. In the mean time however, all that
matters is that 10 miles gap to NY.