[Maryanne]OK - we are off at 10am local time today, and both excited to be starting our longest journey yet. Winds are going to be relatively light for the start, which should (possibly) ensure no seasickness (Yay!). We'll try to update our daily position on Yotreps and provided the technology all works and we don't drop a phone overboard or anything breaks, you should be able to see our progress across. Thanks for all the good wishes by email and more, and we understand a certain little girl is now getting an real life bedtime story - we hope we can keep her interested.
Bermuda Day Fitted Dinghy races
[Kyle]One last thing before we go. I wanted to mention the Fitted Dinghy races. It was hard to tell if we were just watching a practice or a real race (I suspect the real race was on Monday). This looks like loads of fun. The Fitted Dinghies race has a few interesting rules that make it especially entertaining: Each boat is allowed to carry up to 1000 square feet of sail, which is about half again what Footprint carries for working sail. Each of these sails is quite a bit bigger than our beloved Screacher. This makes the dinghies obscenely overpowered in all but the lightest winds. They compensate for this by hiking out large crews on planks that are moved from side to side as necessary. The most amusing rule, I think, is that, in order to win, the Captain AND the boat must cross the finish line (there is actually a race in the Caribbean where only the boat must cross). This means that, in desperate circumstances, crews will jump (or be pushed) overboard to lighten the load. I suppose it also has the added benefit, popular in movies, of creating obstructions for your opponent so you can make a clean getaway.
[Kyle]One last thing before we go. I wanted to mention the Fitted Dinghy races. It was hard to tell if we were just watching a practice or a real race (I suspect the real race was on Monday). This looks like loads of fun. The Fitted Dinghies race has a few interesting rules that make it especially entertaining: Each boat is allowed to carry up to 1000 square feet of sail, which is about half again what Footprint carries for working sail. Each of these sails is quite a bit bigger than our beloved Screacher. This makes the dinghies obscenely overpowered in all but the lightest winds. They compensate for this by hiking out large crews on planks that are moved from side to side as necessary. The most amusing rule, I think, is that, in order to win, the Captain AND the boat must cross the finish line (there is actually a race in the Caribbean where only the boat must cross). This means that, in desperate circumstances, crews will jump (or be pushed) overboard to lighten the load. I suppose it also has the added benefit, popular in movies, of creating obstructions for your opponent so you can make a clean getaway.
1 comment:
Happy and safe sailing on your long journey!! Carl
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