Familiar Waters

The boats of the Volvo Ocean race have raced past the islands of the Caribbean in little more than a day. It's waters I feel I know - though having only sailed them once, arriving into St Lucia at the end of the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC). So not much chance of trying to pretend to have recreated the old(ish) man and the sea.

But that one trip means I can remember sailing ever west, ever closer to land. I remember the swell, the trade winds, the warmth, the flying fish, and the squalls that soak you in seconds.

And the wind that fails and shifts, as has happened recently to the Volvo fleet, with the wind directions varying all over the place:
- ABN1 - 190 degrees
- Movistar - 077 degrees
- Pirates - 173 degrees
- Brasil - 023 degrees
- Ericsson - 205 degrees
- ABN2 - 165 degrees

That must be pretty stressful sailing! Time for a relaxing memory from 2003.......


Images from Virtual Spectator and Captain JP