Hurley's breeze back abeam

12th June 2009

Barry Hurley OSTAR diary, June 11: Last night was nice. Flat water, gentle breeze from behind. I was able to make good speed, without too much physical effort, and even managed to catch about three hours of sleep in naps during the night.

Last night was nice. Flat water, gentle breeze from behind. I was able to make good speed, without too much physical effort, and even managed
to catch about three hours of sleep in naps during the night. I knew today would be more physical so any chance I got to sleep I took
advantage of.

The breeze built gradually all morning and veered around to come from the beam to give perfect power reaching conditions. Dinah really does
like this type of breeze. I'm not sure why, perhaps because she is so wide, but give her breeze at 110deg apparent and she'll do anything for
you. We were careering from wave to wave surfing in the teens for hours before the breeze died off again. The dolphins seem to really like it
when you go fast as all day little families of them would come along and jump around the bow wave. One guy must have "slipped" as he jumped, as
he actually hit the side of the boat. It was almost as if he knew when he jumped that it was going to go wrong, but there was nothing he could
do about it at that stage. His bodyweight shook the whole boat! I hope he was ok the poor fella, but it was quite funny at the time.

Hopefully all that surfing will help me in the overall standings too. With Oscar only reporting his position intermittantly it's difficult to
say exactly where we stand, but it looks like I have taken back between 10 and 20 miles of the 40 mile lead he had the day before yesterday.
That's good progress, and if I can keep it up it should be a very close finish! What we do know if that he is heading on a much more Northern
route on his way to the turning mark at Nantucket. He likes going North does our Oscar. He went so far North through the ice fields I wouldn't
be surprised if he arrived in Newport wearing a red and white suit. Although a big grey beard wouldn't look too good for his sponsors now,
would it? Time will tell who has made the best routing decision.

Enough talking about it, I'd best get back to work. Don't forget to tune in to Seascapes tomorrow night

Published in News From the Afloat.ie Archive

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