Day 4 Morning from Al

Good morning everyone, we carried the A2 all night long, doing mostly 7s and 8s, under NNW winds from 5-15 knots, mostly around 10.  Not much to see with pretty thick marine layer obscuring all but the very brightest stars that we can occasionally see the loom of.  Around 0300 we were visited by a small pod of dolphins/porpoises.  For about 10 minutes they did the torpedo show back and forth in the bio-luminescence.  Later this morning he sharks went back on the attack with a new speed record of 11.6 knots recorded by Alex.  Bats replied with "its just a new target".  Stay tuned.  Waves are also turning more westerly instead of northerly so we are getting minor surfing in.  Forecast appears to show a little more wind and a more westerly flow over the next 24 hours. Cheers, Al


Incidentally, I asked Al about his various references to rubber duckies in previous updates. Apparently, that's what he's calling his own team (consisting of he, himself, and Al). Al is our floater/navigator. I endearingly called him the "floatie" in one of my emails, so he's now Team Rubber Duckie!

Do you think Al is this one?

Or this one?

I also asked about his references to the morning roll call and what they can surmise about the standings. Here was his reply:

Regarding check-in being our only time to know where other boats are.  We do not have access to the tracker data, delayed or not.  So unless another is broadcasting AIS data (a small percentage of boats are) and we are close enough to be able to receive the data ( generally less than 10 miles) we are flying blind with regards to the location of the competition.  We have not seen another racer since then end of the first night.

If you have any questions, leave and comment here or on Facebook and I'll pass it on.


Oh, and look what I found...

Definitely THIS one.

Go Duckies! Go Sharks! Go Bats!
-Janna