(by Nathan after a sat phone call)
My comments from what I know, most of which she doesn't:
Nat's been sailing faster in the past day or so. The breeze should
continue to build for them over the next day or two, filling to solid
trades all the way to Hawaii.
The Westsail 32 has been sailing really well and fast to keep up with her
and a couple of other boats. The Wylie 39, Lightspeed, was not doing well
after taking a flyer to the north but is now back up to speed. The breeze
seems to be filling in across the course now.
In her division, Archimedes the other Express 27 (Joe Balderama) has been
sailing pretty consistently around the clock and has stretched to about
144 miles ahead of her (distance to finish). The Mini 6.5 (Libra,
Przemyslaw Karwasiecki) has been slowing down for the past day or so and
his north/south position on the course is close to hers so they might meet
up if she keeps up the pace and catches up.
Bandicoot the Wylie 30 is out front boat for boat, closely tailed by the
longest waterline in the fleet (Scaramouche, PJ 50). Frolic the Islander
36 is close behind (about even with Archimedes) and has been sailing a
very solid, consistent race.
Nat's comments:
She met up with the Westsail 32 recently- the call was garbled as to
whether she talked with him in person or over VHF.
She's been alternating between spinnaker and the twin headsails. The
latter are a pain to set up but the boat is more directionally stable when
flying them which is important to give her a break since she's
power-limited on the autopilot and needs to do a lot of hand steering.
She lost one spinnaker (lost, not exploded) and tried to go get it but
lost visual contact. One other spinnaker has a significant tear and a
third has a small tear that isn't slowing her down.
The swell is confused: she's been able to surf to 14 kts under spinnaker
and 12 kts with the double headsail but the downwind tradewinds swell is
not dominant; there are also waves coming from other directions. That's
making it hard for the autopilot to sail well and fast.
She's presently a bit under 875 miles from the finish, which puts her
arrival sometime around the 14th depending on whether the breeze fills or
dies. The estimate of the 14th assumes 6 kts made good from now until
arrival.
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