You gotta love Clipper Ventures' commitment to helicopter coverage at race starts. How else would you get pictures like this of our start out of Hawaii? [photo posted in Santa Cruz April 16th]
Position 35 01.73N 134 04.64W
Despite our stellar start out of Hawaii, we found ourselves at 7th a week into the race. Downloading the latest weather files that day (which are the same for everyone...no outside weather assistance is allowed) we saw an opportunity and decided as a crew to take it. The forcast was for the northeast winds to change to the north. If we headed due north then (and if no one followed us), we'd hold the advantage of being able to carry on comfortably due east when the winds changed while the others, still south of us, would have to struggle tacking into the north winds to maintain their NE track.
It worked. We fell to 8th at first as we headed north while the others continued northeast. Then, when the winds change, we tacked with them and shot up to 2nd place in twelve hours time. Right now we're in a battle with Nova Scotia, 13 miles ahead, for 1st.
Three days to go.
