"It's plain sailing out here," is how Joe summed up the conditions on Day 3 of The Transat. "The wind is around 12 knots and we are making good speed in a good direction." Plain sailing perhaps, but not for long. There is a deep trough of low pressure approaching from the west and the plain sailing being experienced by Joe and his fellow competitors will soon change to more of that crash-bang sailing typical of this transatlantic race. "I am expecting the wind to pick up to around 30 knots by late in the day today," Joe said. "Fortunately it will be from the south so we will be able to sail on course. It will also be a close reach with the wind forward of the beam and I know that this boat loves that point of sail." Wells Fargo - American Pioneer has already proven to be extremely fast in those conditions and Joe is hoping to make back some of the miles he lost to fellow American Kip Stone on Artforms. At the early poll this morning Wells Fargo - American Pioneer trailed Artforms by 36 miles.
While the race to date has been close between these two American sailors, we should not forget that the third place boat, Okami, is also in the hunt and pushing hard for a win. Jacques Bouchacourt the skipper of Okami has decided to take a different course and has headed north in the hope that he will find a favorable wind to make an end run around the two leaders. It's a strategy that Joe may have to adopt some time down the road if he is unable to catch Stone and his newer Open 50. "I am a long way from doing anything radical at this point," Joe said. "It seems that Artforms has an edge on speed especially going upwind, but there are plenty of other points of sail and many miles to go before we get to Boston, so I am just going to keep pushing hard and concentrating on my weather analysis." Artforms was launched six months ago and is the latest generation of Open 50's. The boat has large dagger-boards forward and they most certainly help with upwind performance. Given that Wells Fargo - American Pioneer is almost six years old Joe can take heart that he's sailing a great race against a tough competitor.
Aside from the intense racing life on board is slowly settling into a routine. Joe reported that he had the first "decent" sleep of the race just before daybreak this morning when he crammed in a pleasant two hours. Other than that it's been the odd 20 minute cat-nap, but despite the lack of rest he feels good and is enjoying the sailing. "It's still cold out here," he said. "Especially in the early morning hours. I woke up shivering this morning and decided to turn the heater on for a bit to warm things up and to dry the boat out. I can report that it worked great and really helped boost morale." Other than a small heater, the comforts of home are slim to nonexistent. Joe spends most of his time sitting at the navigation station or on deck changing or trimming sails. Cooking is done on a small single-burner stove. There is a CD player for music. Fortunately the AlpineAire food is easy to prepare and delicious so the life of a lonely bachelor, while wet and cold, is at least a well fed one.
- Brian Hancock (great.circle@verizon.net)
