The Race ....Team Adventure move up past Argentina
by Lydia Langston on 10 Mar 2001
1500 GMT 20 51.76' S;31 08.88' W;Boat speed, 10.2 knots, Wind speed 12 knots from the NE Course 008 degrees.
Club Med and Innovation Explorer have finished. Team Adventure (4400 to finish) Warta Polpharma (653 miles from
leader) Team Legato (3298 miles from leader)
Splash, In between squalls the wind evaporated and Jean Yves decided with the boat speed down to two knots to tie
a couple of loops in a length of rope and jump off the stern for a refreshing dip. I was soon to follow. The sea water
was very warm and felt terrific. Other joined in too, this teased the wind enough to return and soon we were back up
to 10 knots and making some miles north.
A few tacks, big moon, warm and sunny. No big miles, just over 266 in the past 24 hours. We are searching for
easterly trade winds, getting past Argentina and Uruguay. Rio is 700 miles to the west northwest and Ascension
Island is 1,483 miles to the northeast. Fernando is 1,300 miles north of us and Marseilles is 4,400 miles up the track
The Horn. The cold, the damp, the ginormous waves are becoming a distant memory. Memories that will not soon be
forgotten, just replaced for now with sunny days, speedy warm miles and a big moon to sail by. A few flying fish by
day, and by night a dark hanging night sky as the Southern Cross and other stars move southward overhead. On
board the focus is speed. Get the boat tuned and going for the best miles in the best wind.
Bananas, Bowie and Kiwi update. These 3 troopers are really excited about the warm weather and have been seen
sunbathing on deck and counting flying fish by day and stars by night. It turns out that Kiwi is more of a
night-nocturnal type, and has been keeping us amused with late night antics. While Bowie barks at the moon,
Bananas keeps reading up on the Amazon and all the monkeys there. He is real concerned that the lumber men are
cutting down too many trees and that his cousins will all have to move onto boats and go sailing for lack of places to
live.
As we are sailing slowly, Larry and I are taking some time to focus on our plans fro sailing back to the US and
working on fundraising.for our future plans. During The Race we have had thousands of students following our
progress daily, learning new skills in the context of a fast catamaran.
As part of our on going learning experience, on our trip home to the US, we are planning to retrace the route that
Christopher Columbus took starting in Spain and ending in San Salvador. For this passage we will have a school
teacher onboard to transmit the experience to classrooms around the world. There will be a 'look back' comparing a
modern voyage with what the historical voyage of discovery saw more than 500 years ago.
For any teachers who are interested you can find this position posted on Monster.com or send a resume to
HQ@teamadventure.org
We keep up the good spirits and look forward to a consistent pace northbound.
All the best, we keep sailing fast, Cam
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