“Today was a much nicer day: the weather was beautiful and we’d been progressing just as a racing boat is supposed to, with the speed between 14-19 knots until dawn, when we found ourselves in front of another front. We were progressing really well but in the end it was too much for the boat and also for C inside. He stuck his sleepy head out: “Are we reefing?”

25.01. 12 30 GMT chronicle and some info about routing

Our happiness with the A2 didn’t last too long, the wind had turned and we were back with the C0. The first half of the night was all about fighting in one place, C was its victim. There is a front full of showers attached to every wind-change, where it’s really not easy to pass. Though we know there is wind behind them, we cannot get through to reach it. The effect of one or more fronts around make us stop every time, and we can only continue after we’d payed our tolls and the currency is time.

We payed, and ploughed through from the Northerly light wind zone to the Easterly zone — so we thought… but behind the front, instead of the expected, there was a 17 — 20 knots North-Easterly. The boat accelerated like if someone pushed the pedal to the metal. We hardly believed it, we were running between 14 — 19 knots until dawn when, there we were in front of a next front again. Everything was black, showers everywhere. After a few minutes it was 18 knots again. This time the clouds didn’t stop us, we entered the Easterly which was stronger than forecasted but light for our sails. J1 up, we’ve been sailing like this for hours, between 13-15 knots, the sun is shining and we only see cirrus clouds, the surroundings seem stable.

A few sentences about Spirit of Hungary’s routing:

We haven’t had the chance to set our boat’s polar chart and the sail-chart in time before the race, because in order to do this: you need a more months-long systematic sailing, huge amount of data, experience with the boat, searching for optimal size and shaped sails, and then entering them into the program.

Since Conrad is experienced with the Adrena Pro program — which provides more or less similar services as my previous program but is more specialized in boats like the SOH —, it seemed to make sense to install his program on my boat’s computer. We are continuously improving the database with the parameters of out boat, its performance and sails.
So, as of today, I can say that we are able to navigate just as precisely as the others in the fleet.

At the start this was not done yet, so we made mistakes with our sail-choices — as the routing was suggesting sails that we did not have. By now it only calculates with what we have on board. To be able to teach the program for our boat completely, we need to try many sail-combinations, and do lots of maneuvers in various weather and wind conditions. The advantage of using these programs is just indescribable.

20 30 GMT  position is 30° 02′ S, 29° 17′ W.  The wind has gotten lighter, but we can progress without stops, it’s sensational! We hope it will continue like this for the following days.”

N.F.