Concerto - George Isted/Mark Anstey
Blog
30th June - Leg 2, 42nm to Manacles
Submitted by George Isted on Thu, 30/06/2011 - 09:5649:35.0N 005:50.7W at 0915bst
Morning all,
this is probably going to be the last blog update as we close-in on the
Cornwall coast, the wind has headed us a bit and we are now close-hauled on port
tack heading for the lizard (that’s Lizard point for the non-sailors). I
believe we are currently forecast to be 5th place in class but until we cross
the line it is all to play for.
I think it is going to take some time to digest the last few weeks of
sailing as there have been so many ups and downs since we arrived in Falmouth a
few days before the start. Many friends have been made alon
Re: 29th June - Leg 2, 129nm to Manacles
Submitted by George Isted on Wed, 29/06/2011 - 18:3248:53.8N 007:47.2W
second report of the day! mostly because we are excited to be so
close to home.
Mark has his pinny on and cooking dinner while I trim and keep and eye on
the course that wendy is steering.
No dolphins yet today but we did find a small fish on deck a little
earlier. As we are now back on the continental shelf there is a lot more
shipping around so we are going to have to get used to being extra vigilant
again.
If (when) Carolina make it in before us I hope they remember to bring the
cold beers to the boat when we arrive. I expect we will head back into
Pende
29th June - Leg 2, 182nm to Manacles
Submitted by George Isted on Wed, 29/06/2011 - 09:3448:24.9N 008:55.7W at 0923BST
From the radio chatter is sounds like Carolina, Franglais, BladeRunner and
Concerto all have roughly the same distance to go. All quiet from
Strategem who are either well in the lead or just keeping quiet on the radio to
keep their game plan a secret.
All fine aboard for the last 24 hours, the small spinnaker went up again
yesterday afternoon as the seas had flattened down a bit. We have
been frustrated with the kite and getting a decent course out of Wendy as we had
a beam-on sea that was knocking us about. It was much more successful last
night
Re: 27th June - Leg 2, from no wind to lots...
Submitted by George Isted on Tue, 28/06/2011 - 11:0647:40.5N 011:58.4W at 1056BST
It has been a relatively easy 24 hours on port tack, initially the wind was
at approximately 45 deg off the bow but has been on the beam for the last 10
hours. Wendy the windpilot has needed lots of attention to keep us
on a course of 060-070 as she wanders around during gusts and then holes in the
wind. Generally the wind has been around 10-14kts (True).
I gather that there have been some reports of gusts and rough seas, we had
a big line of cloud come over last night and I shortened sail expecting some
breeze but the pressure was increasing rather
27th June - Leg 2, from no wind to lots...
Submitted by George Isted on Mon, 27/06/2011 - 08:4446:27N 014:56W at 0843bst
Bit of a dull and wet day yesterday, very light airs, slow process and rain
all day. Finally at 0300 this morning a strong breeze of 18-23kts from the
North-North-East kicked in. I initially put two reefs in but when I
get into my bunk at 5am the boat was slamming a bit so Mark put the third reef
in to slow us down and keep the boat in one piece. We are still doing 5kts
in this configuration and are comfortable.
We are in Radio contact with Nazca II still , they are a bit further west
and didn’t suffer the wind hole we had but now have more wind that we
26th June - Leg 2
Submitted by George Isted on Sun, 26/06/2011 - 11:28Another 24 hours pass and we are now closer to Falmouth than we are to Sao
Miguel! Also it’s my birthday today (33) so I had fun opening cards this
morning and even had Happy Birthday sang to me over the VHF by Mike and Paul on
Nazca II.
While we started yesterday with the big spinnaker up there was really a
little too much wind so Mark wisely suggested that we go down to the small one,
we did the swap and were much more comfortable, doing the same speed and Wendy
(the WindPilot) was much happier.
Because Wendy was struggling in the morning under the big kite I was using
the ele
25th June - Leg 2
Submitted by George Isted on Sat, 25/06/2011 - 10:1044:12N
19:36W at 1010BST
Morning
All,
My
birthday is not until tomorrow but it seems as thought it came a little early as
I’m told that the AZAB tracker is showing Concerto as being in first place for
Class 1!! However we are not quite halfway back so there is still a long
way to go and we are trying not to push the boat (and ourselves) too hard.
Carolina is also up in the top three so overall the Contessa 32s are putting on
a good show.
The
Spinnaker came down last night at about midnight as it was starting to get
uncomfortable on board and we wanted to put a bit more nor
24th June - Leg 2
Submitted by George Isted on Fri, 24/06/2011 - 08:1442:08N 21:59W at 0710 UTC
Our third night as sea was very enjoyable, nice sunset, clear sky and
millions of stars.
All fine on board with the Small spinnaker up since 1830 yesterday.
Progress has been good and I’m told by Carolina that we are in the top three or
four boats in our class. It is very pleasing to be making such good
progress in the right direction and at speed.
One minor problem is that one of the solar panels appears to have stopped
charging, this will mean that I will have to run the engine every few days but
that’s not a major issue as we have plenty of diesel.
23nd June - Leg 2, another day in the atlantic
Submitted by George Isted on Thu, 23/06/2011 - 11:0840:44.8N 24:23.2W
After two nights at sea we are back to our normal routine on-board and
settled into the watch system. We are being a bit more relaxed about
the watch system this time to allow whoever is in most need of down-time to get
a bit of extra sleep and this seems to be helping.
We had the Spinnaker up for the frist time yesterday, we could see Carolina
coming up from behind with her big pink kite and we thought it best to do the
same. It came down again at about 21.30 as there were some black clouds
coming up but I believe Carolina kept going with it overnight.
We are
22nd June - Leg 2, first 24 hours
Submitted by George Isted on Wed, 22/06/2011 - 11:5639:14.6N 026:16.6W
It’s great to be underway and even better to be making our way back to see
our families at home!
The 24hrs leading up the the start were rather frustrating and stressful as
we had an on-going “discussion” with our insurance company about the repairs
done in Ponta Delgada, in the end it all worked out fine but we only had
confirmation about 3 hours before the start. Big thanks to Jeremy Rogers
for his call to me and email to the insurers.
The start of Leg 2 was fantastic, a good breeze of 20 kts and bright, warm
sunshine. The three Contessa 32s started altogeth
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