Ellen battered and bruised but fights on

by Offshore Challenges on 22 Jan 2005 'Blue skies to windward, huge cloud to leeward...I can't believe it but I only have six knots of wind. In the past few hours I've had everything from 14 to 27 knots, its made it impossible to rest. I stood on deck earlier and shouted out to the sky that I couldn't do another sail change. Not sure whether to get the full main back up again, if there is wind out the other side of this cloud we'll be in trouble...and re-hoisting the mainsail is brutal. The sea has gone calm, like this hole is a trap.'

Upwind 20plus knots continue as B&Q heads north-east at 11.91 knots of boat speed. Ellen's lead continues to slip. Half an hour of her lead for every hour of time - this morning she held a one day, twenty hour lead at 0710GMT by 1810GMT it was one day fourteen hours. The breeze is expected to diminish overnight and tomorrow there is going to be very little wind around. Expect to see further time lost this weekend.

B&Q has now sailed over 22,000 miles at 16.9 knots but for the last three days her daily mileage has dropped to around the 130 mile mark [compared to the 400 mile mark in the Southern Ocean]. Every mile is hard-fought for, although this weekend Ellen needs to focus on the bigger picture rather than fighting for every mile in the light airs and hot conditions that will take out of her what she hasn't got to give.

‘I can't believe this breeze - I tacked back to port, heading north-east, over an hour ago on what I thought was diminishing breeze but I've had 31 knots, two times 27 and 28 knots - it's so changeable. We've got five major sail changes between now and the light stuff. I hurt a lot, can't get comfortable to sleep. Think the nights will give me more respite than the days in this heat.’

B&Q is still on a north-westerly course at 11.31 knots [wind speed 22.3 knots] but likely to tack back on to port on a north-east course within a few hours as breeze edges further left, that is west of north. Ellen is tacking to stay in the strongest northerly airflow but needs to avoid going to far east, closer to the high pressure zone of the St Helena High which is expanding westwards, or too far west, close to the Brazilian coast.

Unfavourable weather since rounding Cape Horn and the rigours of climbing the mast twice yesterday, when Ellen effectively sailed B&Q back down the course, has massively impacted on her advantage, which has fallen to under two days - her smallest advantage since approaching halfway on New Year's Eve.

In her call this morning Ellen relayed, ‘I feel very nervous this morning because I'm very tired, I'm very sore I can hardly move my leg it is so swollen, and I'm nervous because we've been going slowly and the weather ahead is terrible, the wind has not at all been what was forecast, I've had 34 knots, and down to 17, this has meant more sail changes and very little chance to rest. We're back on the second reef, and that makes me nervous as the headboard car is sitting right where the damage is. We just need some flatter water.'


The wind today is northerly with 18-25 knots flow - but prognosis for the weekend is for light airs. Slow boat speeds and hard work for Ellen to keep B&Q moving, zig-zagging northwards to avoid the worst of the high pressure in the east and avoiding the Brazilian coast to the west, and with Saturday, Sunday and Monday looking very light and slow, this lead could turn in to a deficit by Tuesday. The 'race' could be restarting from the Equator.

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