Thursday, 26 November 2009 21:38 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
Many yachts are now beyond the half way point to Antigua. In fact Miss Tippy has less than 1000 miles to run. Having said that the fleet is well spread out with 500 miles between the front runners and those at the rear of the fleet. This is creating some radio problems and the daily roll call is taking a considerable time. It is good to read from the personal logs that yachts appear to be having a good passage and everyone appears to be in good spirits. The weather forecast continues to give favourable winds but with typically squally conditions from time to time. The sea state is also a little confused with a cross swell sometimes tipping the gin and tonics beyond acceptable limits. Richard Bolt is now on route to Antigua the hard way - by air!
Derry, on Jackamy, provides today's report. They all seem to be having good sailing days at the moment. They are covering lots of miles with the wind behind them, but it is a bit lumpy.
Saturday 21st November.
We had an incident in the night......a BOB! Similar to a man overboard but it was a bbq overboard! It managed to work it's way out of the housing that connected it to the guard rail. We were busy star gazing when we heard a loud plop! Oops!
Bionic Un sends our report today. They have sailed the most southerly course of the fleet and hope their tactic of picking up the easterly trade winds first will pay off in the long run. Read their blog (click here)
Tuesday, 17 November 2009 14:10 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
All Blue Water Rally yachts are now at sea. Jackamy and Mercury Rising finally departed this morning after being delayed by refrigeration problems and late crew arrivals. Chsalonina and Bali Blue are just ahead of them having cleared South of Fuerteventura and the Canaries yesterday.
Sunday, 15 November 2009 13:22 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
All but three yachts are now at sea heading for Antigua. Jackamy, Mercury Rising and Chsalonina are due to depart from Puerto Calero today. Yesterday's departures (Bali Blue,Blue Magic, Gaultine III, Miss Tippy, Motu Iti, Natibou, Roundabout and Sinan) slipped their lines from Puerto Calero Marina amidst a very noisy send off from the shore party yesterday morning at 1000am.
Our Swedish yacht, Natibou, sends today's report. They wrote it in Swedish, so I asked Mr. Google to translate it. I thought I might tidy it up, but it's more fun trying to decypher it yourself! Yesterday the fleet put their clocks back 2 hours, so they now get up 2 hours later than we do in UK. They will stay on this time zone until next Saturday, when they go back 2 more hours.
Saturday, 21 November 2009 09:57 | By Richard Bolt
As a ridge of high pressure to the west of the Azores continues to force bad weather on Northern Europe, it also continues to give good trade wind conditions to the BWR fleet. Sue, on Camomile has been keeping the crews amused with a running quiz after the 1800 daily radio net. Here is her report from last night:
Wednesday, 18 November 2009 15:51 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
Winds from the North East have now moved in and the fleet is sailing well. Most of the yachts are well on their way towards Latitude 20 Longitude 30 - known as position 20/30 (approx 300nm North West of the Cape Verde Islands) - a traditional turning place for altering course direct to Antigua.
Monday, 16 November 2009 16:57 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
After 3 or 4 days of very light winds the fleet is now starting to get the promised trades. The more Westerly yachts are certainly starting to sail well and some are reporting speeds of up to 7kts. Mercury Rising and Jackamy are still in Puerto Calero but hope to get moving tomorrow. Roundabout has had some fantastic fishing with two blue marlin of 3.5metres. With the trades kicking in properly tomorrow we expect the daily mileages to gradually increase as the larger yachts spread their wings. Amber Sea (Moody 38) is certainly the front runner at present - what are you feeding those guys on Phyllis? Remember its not a race!
Friday, 13 November 2009 09:27 | By Tony Diment, Rally Director
Five yachts sailed from Puerto Calero yesterday morning under cloudless skies and light Northerly winds. The first roll call at 1800 hrs yesterday evening reported very light winds. Amber Sea, Briet, Camomile, Fai Tira and Lucy Alice slipped from the marina amidst cheering and hooters from the rest of the rally at around 1000am yesterday.
Thursday, 26 November 2009 21:38 | 
By Tony Diment, Rally Director