ARC fleet, some distractions from the approaching winter

Winter's approaching. It's cold, it's grey, and the sun is setting at five in the afternoon. Thanks to modern technological marvels, though, we can enjoy- remotely- a bit of the excitement of being out on the ocean. Yes, it's Atlantic Rally for Cruisers time again, and the fleet's been underway for five days now. Between crew blogs (updated via SSB/Pactor or satphones), the Yellowbrick GPS tracker each boat carries, and the clever ideas of the rally's Web design team, there's enough updates and tactical data to bring observers, virtually, into the fleet.

Here's the fleet status as of this morning (Friday Nov. 26)

ARC fleet positions

(The live-updating map can be found on Adventure Tracking.)

Challenge number one: Spot the powerboat. Yes, Steve and Linda Dashew had the nerve to enter an 11-knot motor yacht (Wind Horse, FPB 83, yellow number 24 above) in a rally dominated by cruising sailboats. Five days in, they've already built a 500-mile lead on the sailing fleet. This is what a consistent 250-plus miles per day looks like in the real world: a significant and rapidly growing lead on just about everything else around. The competition isn't exactly pokey, either: purple #25 is Berenice, a Swan 80. There's an Akilaria Class 40 and a Shipman Seaway 80 right behind her. The GPS trackers don't lie: the oft-quoted mark of "200 miles per day for a good cruising sailboat" is very, very difficult to achieve in real world conditions.

Wind Horse has built this lead for the same reason steam, and later diesel, replaced sail in cargo ships: the wind is fickle and unpredictable. With good trade winds, quite a few of the sailing yachts in this fleet could turn out 300+ mile days and quickly horizon the lone powerboat. But when the wind isn't behaving itself, the motor vesel plugs away, on course and on schedule, while the sailing fleet is forced to either wait around or sail far out of the way to find wind. That's not to say I'd unequivocally choose a powerboat for such a crossing, but it's hard to deny their appeal when looking at conditions like these. (Of course, if one simply wants to get to St. Lucia quickly, one climbs aboard an Airbus 340 and relaxes with a movie and drink for a few hours. But that takes all the fun out of it!)

Also interesting to note is how many of the sailboats have, instead of taking a more-or-less direct course from the Canaries to St. Lucia, gone south to Cape Verde in search of steady tradewinds. With the fickle wind, there will undoubtedly be some busy attendants at the Cape Verde fuel docks in the next few days. What remains to be seen is how many boats can clear Cape Verde and make some westerly progress before this weekend's forecast wind shifts mix things up and leave many of the sailboats with the breeze dead on the nose.

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