| DEREK
AND OTHER STORIES
27th May 2003
The Around Alone enters it’s last week with
Derek Hatfield on Spirit of Canada now less than
700 miles from Newport. He has been making excellent
speed and looks set to finish over the weekend.
His arrival will, of course, be very weather dependant,
but if Hatfield averages 8 knots, not an unreasonable
speed, he could cross the finish line as early as
Friday evening. It’s likely that the weather
gods will throw him one last curveball and if that
happens and he slows down to 7 knots his ETA will
be around lunchtime on Saturday. All of this assumes
that Spirit of Canada is able to sail a straight
course to the finish. The weather forecast is reasonable;
Hatfield should enjoy winds from the southwest for
most of the week. Since he is heading in a northwesterly
direction the wind will be on his port beam, a fast
point of sail for Spirit of Canada.
On Monday Derek sent an update from on board. “The
wind conditions have lightened up considerably and
I am more downwind now,” he wrote. “I
jibed the boat this morning from an easterly heading
and am now headed more west, towards Bermuda, which
is about 160 miles ahead. I have just under 800
miles to the finish. The weather here is showing
signs of the frontal system that will pass here
tonight and tomorrow. There are high clouds and
it is starting to get overcast. I should have stronger
winds this afternoon which will speed me up a bit
which will be nice. Everything else on board is
good. I have cleaned the boat up and straightened
everything around for the stronger winds tonight.
I've also started to cat-nap today to get rested
just in case I don't get much sleep tonight. I think
everything is ready.”
Before signing off from these updates,
there are a few stories I had hoped to touch upon
during the race, but never found a slot. One of
them is about the creativity of some of the shore
crew. Chasing the Around Alone fleet from stopover
to stopover is a full time job for those teams that
can afford the man-power. Others like Ashley Perrin,
part of Bruce Schwab’s shore team, there are
times in-between stops that have to be filled with
other kinds of productive work. Ashley is very creative
and has a flourishing business that makes bags from
recycled sails. Not only is this a fun a fruitful
way to keep food on the table, but Ashley kindly
donates a portion of the proceeds to a skippers
campaign. She is currently making bags from old
mainsails from Everest Horizontal and Ocean Planet.
If you would like a practical piece of history check
out Ashley’s website at www.oceanracing.com.
The other story was one that should
have been written when I was on New Zealand. A local
composer wrote a wonderful song about the Around
Alone. Martine Hawkins wrote “Out There”
in honor of the skippers in the Around Alone. If
you would like to hear the tune, go to www.whakatane.co.nz/martine.html
and take a listen. You can also find out more about
Martine and order her CD on line.
Stay tuned this week as Derek nears
the finish. Since I know there are a lot of people
making plans to come down from Canada I will try
and keep you updated with the latest ETA of Spirit
of Canada as Derek closes on Newport.
--- Brian Hancock great.circle@verizon.net
Source:
Around
Alone Official Site
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