Race 13 - Day 4
Crew Diary - Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland to Den Helder, Netherlands
21 July

Nathan Robertson
Nathan Robertson
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So our penultimate race is into its third night and it had been very interesting to say the least since race start. The line start at Greencastle was a first for me but great racing in such close proximity to the other boats back down Loch Foyle before rounding the marks and heading out into sea.

The expected strong winds for the start didn't materialise so we ended up with all boats doing minimal speed right next to each other even to the point where chatting to the boat next to us was possible! At one point we found ourselves being the fastest of the slow clipper 70s and our bow was leading the way, this unfortunately did not last long as we settled into third place as the wind picked up but we were happy enough with the start....

24hrs later and as the wind dropped again so did our speed and seemingly quicker than the rest of the fleet as boat after boat passed us which was incredibly frustrating but we just couldn't seem to find the downwind speed we wanted or needed!!

As we approached the much talked about Pentland Firth, looking behind us was not a pretty picture as on a clear blue sunny day round the northern tip of Scotland there we no boats behind us, we were last!! We could see all the fleet ahead of us tacking their way through the tricky tidal conditions. As we rounded the tip still in last position we entered the seriously strong tides and currents, you can visually see the different currents pushing against each other and that was made even more obvious as we tacked behind IchorCoal heading away from land, they followed suit only a couple of minutes later but tacked right into a strong current which for quite a while was actually pushing them backwards towards the headland!!

One position gained!! As we negotiated a zig-zag path around the headland we also saw Garmin having big problems, being stuck in the currents close to land, they couldn't get out for what seemed like hours. You can drop a lot of positions quickly when your boat isn't moving forward or even going backwards!! As they are our main rival for the overall podium position in London this came as a welcome relief as morale onboard was a little indifferent before we saw their problems.

So boat life has settled down after Pentland Firth and we are pretty relaxed in our position, I've just had a busy 4hour watch and enjoyed the racing headsail change so some good BOW action with 'Old Man Mike', all went smoothly which isn't always the case when heeled over at 45 degrees trying to move around and swap sails...

It is around 2-3 days down to Den Helder (Netherlands) apparently and still plenty of racing to do, the winds are scheduled to drop again and from my limited experience I now see this as the time when position changes are most likely so positions to hopefully be gained.

Time now to grab a couple of hours sleep before our 0200 to 0600 on watch begins. You get to be quite an expert at 'cat-napping' on board these boats...

Nathan Robertson