Good Morning Team Maverick Fans,
Some fun facts about Maverick:
Length 14.1m waterline
Max beam 3.9m
Weight approx 5300kg
Max speed achieved sailing 27kts (25kts at 110true)
Engine 40hp
Max motoring speed 8kts
Fuel capacity 70L
Range under engine 140nm
Water Capacity 60L (two tanks)
Watermaker 6L an Hour at 6 amps draw
Battery bank 150AH
Cooking facilities 1x "jet boil"
Toilet facilities ............ like "wild camping"
As I look at the above and at the race track with the yachts we are trying to hunt down / hold off I am thinking that we are sharing the same part of the ocean but having very different experiences. The cost of having a 46ft yacht that will keep up with yachts twice her size is the loss of any sort of luxury. The meal plan on Stay Calm and Maverick will be very different.
Today we moved from the JT/ GS combo in the morning to a J1. Unfortunately the wind backed (even though it was not forecast to). it has been slowly veering and easing as the day has gone on so we went back to a JT/GS and are now on our M0.
We expect tonight and tomorrow to be slow as the wind eases further as we push into a transitional zone (weak ridge before popping out in the trades on the other side. We are all very much looking forward to this and the increased progress this should entail.
As I have mentioned these light (but not too light) conditions favor the yachts with the longer waterline. We are working hard to keep in touch with Aragon and stay ahead of Stay Calm. We are hopeful that if the trades are strong enough on the other side we might get some foiling conditions that could see us start to make some ground on the fron runners.
I must say that this yacht is fantastic, we still have so much to learn about her and this time at sea is really helping. We bvery much are experimenting with different combinations to see whats fast. I can't complain too much as we are currently doing 1.5-2kts over true wind speed in a 46ft yacht.
In other news I have used the calm settled dry weather to give the yacht a good clean out. We got all the interior on deck (4 self inflating mattresses and 4 sleeping bags) we then got everything dry and anti-bacterial sprayed the interior. t is currently drying out. We will also leach flake the jibs for compact storage in the hope that we won't be seeing them again after tonight!
Life on board is good at the moment and we Celebrated Kees Postma's birthday today. We all had a tot of Westerhall Rum to celebrate.
The wildlife front has been rather disappointing but we are definatly in flying fish grounds now with a few strikes on the hull last night.
"Attitude is the difference between an ordeal and an adventure"
Bob bitchen
Olly Out
Sean Blog; Day 7
Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic...
All's well on the good ship Maverick. We're celebrating another birthday today with Kees turning 42yrs old. Had our fellow crew Nikki been here, a third would have followed.. Hope you're on the mend Nikki and enjoy the luxuries of a birthday ashore.
I'm sure it's been mentioned in a past blog but our antics a few days ago were absolutely phenonemal! In 22-24kts of breeze, we were hurtling along at a steady 17-21kts maxing out at over 23kts. I've experienced these types of speeds before but never so easily sustained. For hours on end we were like a little carbon pinball, careering through a somewhat bumpy machine!
We are well and truely in our routine now; wake up, rehydrate a bag of granola and rasberries, pull on some wet gear, get on deck for a 3-hr watch. Come off watch, rehydrate some lunch (1000calorie bag of sweet and sour chicken today) and try and get a quick siesta bfore next watch. This continues relentlessly through sunsets, sunrises, sails go up, sails go down, trim on and ease. Every so often we catch a glimpse of the Nav computer and get reminded of the scale of the Atlantic...roll on!
Sean
