October 3, 2024
Flat Seas and Shifty Winds (Photo Courtesy of Oman Sail)
Flat Seas and Shifty Winds (Photo Courtesy of Oman Sail)

The Winds are light and the seas flat. Not the senerio you want when you are less than 700 miles from the finish.  Still 1200 miles ahead of the virtual 80 day pace boat, only 8 km travelled in a 6 hour period overnight. Hoping for stronger winds after the high pressure has moved on to maintain the advantage over the pace boat to the finish.

Current forecasts suggest good winds through Monday and Tuesday giving Musandam the opportunity to make good progress up the Omani coast and towards Sur. Once out of this period of light airs they have been stuck in overnight the winds should fill in from the south / south west and have been predicted to have periods of 20- 25 knots on Tuesday, once north of Sur the winds are expected to diminish and the last 100 miles to Muscat could be hard work for the crew. For now it’s frustratingly slow and there is a need to be vigilant, man and machine are tired and an error now could cause just as much damage as anywhere else on this attempt.

From onboard Musandam today “We just have to take it on the chin today and hope by the end of the day we will be moving well again in a wind that has shifted as we anticipate and increased to a strength we can accelerate in to. If we do get the 20 knots that is hinted at then it will be the first time in almost weeks, that we will have been above 12 knots boat speed. we were doing 10 at times during the day yesterday and it felt like we were really going fast. Certainly we are all looking forward to doing 20 knots again if ever we get to do that again.

It’s another pretty good (but not the best ) sun rise here, there are quite a few clouds, especially off to the west. Last night we watched the sun go down, without a cloud in the sky. So we were hoping to get a chance to see the green flash and there was much anticipation as the last 20 minutes before sunset were spent watching it slow descend to the horizon.  Just before it slipped into the sea it was obscured slightly behind some far off clouds and the green flash dream was over. Apart from the French who claimed to have seen it and afterwards claimed that you needed french eyes to have seen it..there won’t be many more chances to see the green flash now – so we might have to leave it for another trip.

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