Stop and go

Hi all
 
Well a big weekend on Bahrain Team Pindar, for a number of reasons:
 
I made it through the High Pressure, so am now at the Northern limit of the Southern Ocean weather systems.

I had to take a 4 hour Stop and Go penalty this morning, and probably lost 6 hours in the process to the competition.

I saw my first albatross.

The sea has become a shade of green now.

I have fixed the A3 sail and it is flying now!
 
Getting through the High Pressure:
I'm just skirting the bottom of the High Pressure now, on course for the Ice waypoint, 1250 miles away. To the South there is more wind, and I will be making some gybes to the South at some point, to get the acceleration from the extra wind. I kept moving past the High pressure last night at 10 knots which is great, and I gained a little on the leaders.
 
Stop and Go Penalty:
This was imposed on us for a starting line infringement, where the shore crew got off the boat into the RIB too close to the starting time. Hands up, that was our mistake, but a 4 hour penalty seems quite robust. I had been intending to take the penalty at any point in the race, when the fleet had spread out a little more but just yesterday I was told it had to be taken before the first ice gate. As the only calm conditions were in the High Pressure, I decided to take the penalty this morning once I was safely south of the High.
 
The penalty is just like a penalty at the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix, in that you have to wait at a certain point before going out on the track again.
 
I used the time to totally finish the A3 repair and to hoist the repaired sail for the first time. Unfortunate timing with a rain cloud meant that there was no wind for my restart so I probably lost closer to 6 hours rather than 4 hours, but at least the penalty is now done, and it is a straight run to the finish without any caveats. It is painful to lose a couple of hard fought places in the rankings, but I will just have to make gains over the next 20,000 miles.
 
Albatross:
Yesterday I was visited by an albatross, wonderful to see with its enormous wingspan, and it’s a sign of a whole new world of cold water wildlife that is living in the Southern Seas and that I hope to be able to witness in the weeks to come.
 
The Sea
Yes, the nature of the sea has changed now that the temperature has dropped to 15C, The colour is a shade greener and there is a certain smell to the sea, that you only get in the richer cold waters, maybe it is all the plankton that give the smell?
 
The repair:
Well like the sphinx, the A3 sail has reappeared, albeit not quite as pretty as before. It has been almost 4 days of work to get to this stage, so a lot of time away from sailing the boat, and I have my fingers crossed that she holds to Cape Horn to make up for that time and to make the trip safer with a big furling sail, rather than a spinnaker.  As you can see the rip zig-zags from the front of the sail to the back, it could’nt be much bigger!

It was a moment of jubilation to see that repaired sail for the first time, and a moment of high anxiety – would it hold together? So far so good, but the test will be in the stronger winds to come, particularly furling it, when it will flap violently in the wind.
 
Best regards from the Gateway to the South. Time to hunt down some thermal base layers.

Brian
 
Cabin temp 24 degrees, Sea temp 15 degrees at 3734S 2531W.