Follow Hyde Sails as they race across the Atlantic
by Hyde Sails 25 Sep 2009 12:24 BST
25 September 2009
The Fleet has a calm start off towards Biscay © Tom Gruitt
Hyde’s sails are currently powering the 10-strong Clipper fleet as they race across
the Atlantic. You can follow their progress through the eyes of Tom Gruitt..
The Clipper fleet started its Transatlantic leg from La Rochelle to Rio de Janerio on
Tuesday September 22. On board Cape Breton Island, photographer, Tom Gruitt
will be sharing his experience along the way as he completes his first transatlantic
crossing - you can follow his progress at www.hydesails.com/clipper
Before he set off Tom explained: “Sailing across the
Atlantic has always been a bit of a dream for me. My
leg gives me the opportunity to sail the North and South
Atlantic, and there is even an equator crossing in there
too. It will take roughly four weeks to get to Rio, the
longest I have been on a boat is about five days!”
The start
“We set for a spinnaker start at 1000, but the wind that was there for the parade soon died away to nothing, we
averaged under one knot of boat speed for a few hours, but have now completely stopped. We have completed 2.7
miles in two and a half hours, pretty slow and frustrating going. The light wind start has seen many different sail
combinations, main with kite, windseeker with mainsail, and someone has even tried just hosting a spinnaker with no
mainsail, nothing appears to me much better than anything else! The forecast is for light winds for a few days, but let’s
hope at least some sea breeze sets in soon.”
First night at sea
“Our first night at sea was a quiet one, still with light winds but coming further behind meaning we hoisted our lightweight
kite. We had a good little battle with California but as soon as we hoisted we left them for dead. Winds at the moment
are still fairly light, with about 10 knots from behind meaning we are running at a speed of about seven knots towards
Finistere. In a few hours we should be putting a gybe in to cover the leading pack. We are hoping for more wind as we
near Finistere, we have heard it could be up to about a F5 rounding there in the next day or so. We seem to be slowly
catching the leading pack and pulling away from the people behind us, Hull & Humber are only 20 miles ahead which is
nothing when we still have more than 4,000 miles still to sail.”
Tom took part in all the Clipper training in the lead up to the race, you can read about all his experiences as well as
finding out more about life on board by signing up to the blog at www.hydesails.com