Skip to main content

Tense Times Aboard PSP Logistics as the Clipper Finish Line Nears

June 24, 2014 by jarndt
Tense Times Aboard PSP Logistics as the Clipper Finish Line Nears

June 21st... The Summer Solstice and day 15 of this race, and certainly hands down winner for feeling like the longest day.

After nearly 2,600 miles of ocean racing it's going to be the last few hours and miles that determine the top 6 boats...

Crossing the North Atlantic can be, at times, treachorous but, not on this Summer Sailstice.  Light air blanketed the fleet.

As the latest 'schedule' came in this morning we had confirmation we'd contained our steady progress up the leaderboard and were firmly in fourth position. However, with less than 24 hours of the race remaining, Jamaica Get All Right was only a very short distance ahead giving us the real possibility of moving up to 3rd place and taking a much desired place on the podium.

Some tense hours have followed since - a morning of conscientious bringing in and easing our sails to maximise speed and by lunchtime we could see that we were slowly inching ahead into third position, all the while with the constant nagging mental challenge of 'are we making the best course?' - should continue on our current bearing...but would that sail us straight into a wind hole?... or should we gybe... or not... and what were our compatriots doing? Only hindsight would reveal if the decisions we and they were currently making would be better or worse for the final race result...

Over this afternoon we steadily built a small lead over Jamaica Get All Right , but with such variable winds it can easily be thrown away by the slightest mistake or lapse of concentration on our part. We flew our big 'lightweight' spinnaker for a while, but sadly he's now bearing the scars of his many battles across the past 10 months and is not the spinnaker he used to be, so it was back to our meduim weight, tension mounting as we strived to keep the boat still moving at a good speed and to not give away any ground whilst we dropped and hoisted sails.

And this evening as we sail in the eerie half light that is not quite night but not yet day there is an electric silence as each crew member is silently willing the speed on the Nexus steadily upwards and time to speed up rather than crawling by at the current snails pace. On the horizon ahead we can see second placed Team Garmin as we eat up the distance inch by inch that separates us from them....However looking behind we can see Jamaica as they try to do the same to us!

It’s all very tense and feels like the longest day really has turned out to be the longest day. It’s going to be a nail biting final 9 hours of this race.

Love to my friends and family,

Kym xx

Article Type