Elisa's Journey - Sails on the Horizon

After days of light and variable winds, we have a steady 15 knots of breeze at last. The wind shadows of the Canary Islands are miles behind as we make progress towards Rio. A spinnaker the size of a tennis court spells Cape Breton Island large as life.

While helming under a starry sky last night, I saw a light appear on the horizon. It seemed high enough to be a mast light, so we anticipated it may be one of our fellow Clippers! Our eagle charged on as dawn started to break, and the shadow of a spinnaker came into sight!

Our morning report confirmed Jamaica Clipper popped out the other side of the Canaries and converged on our course.

The race has gone up a notch. This is the first of our competitors we’ve seen in over a week. No longer are we following virtual positions on a computer printout – we have a boat to chase right in front of us, and can see if we are pulling ahead or losing ground. Since the weather is fairly consistent, we simply have to sail better and helm a good course to overtake them – well the theory is simple anyway! In practice, we have been following them for 9 hours now, and every 0.1 knot of speed counts. It requires a great deal of patience. We push ahead striving to leave Jamaica in our wake.

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In between bouts of trimming the sails and helming, our watch decided it would be a good idea to learn Portuguese for Brazil. In the first evening lesson, we learned to count to six and order twenty beer and “beefee” (i.e. steak). That was enough for the first night.

The next night was an advanced Portuguese lesson where we learned how to ask questions such as “How are you?” and “What?”. We then realized we wouldn’t be able to understand the answers, and wondered if it was all worthwhile. We’ll persevere tomorrow evening just in case!

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A personal highlight on board Cape Breton Island is approaching – my 31st birthday! After celebrating my 30th on the first day of Clipper training last year, I am thrilled to be where I am today, sailing across the Atlantic ocean on a racing yacht. As I am slowly creeping up in years, I never really paid much attention to my birthday in recent years. Strangely enough, I find myself counting down the days, just like when I was ten years old! Friends and family have prepared cards and letters for the occasion, which have been patiently stowed in my bag since July – I can’t wait to open them!