Transatlantic Race 2011 and Beyond!
The Maltese Falcon has had an extremely busy month! On July 13th, we completed
our latest ocean crossing with the 2011 Transatlantic Race
(www.transatlanticrace.org.)
Although the wind was very light for much of the trip, we also had
several great sailing days. In
fact, the Falcon broke her own 24-hour mileage record with a 405nm day; that
will be a tough one for us to beat again!
The crossing was made in complete luxury relative to most of
our competitors: we spent the trip living in a completely dry,
climate-controlled environment with TV, Internet access, and home-cooked fresh
meals every day. In comparison,
the other yacht crews were living in foul-weather gear while eating
freeze-dried meals!
Here are some statistics from the crossing:
Distance from start to finish line: 2,975 nm
Distance actually sailed: 3,428.5 nm
Total time to complete race: 13 days, 6 hours, 41 minutes,
and 52 seconds
Average distance sailed per day: 258 nm
Average speed: 10.8 kts
Average speed made good: 9.3 kts
Maximum speed logged: 20.6 kts at 1000 hrs, 7th
July
Minimum speed logged: 0.6 kts at 0200 hrs, 11th
July
Total coffees consumed: 950 (our best guesstimate)
After a brief 30-hour stop in Falmouth, UK we headed back
out to sea for a few more days to sail to Gibraltar. During the trip and while off the coast of Gibraltar, the
Maltese Falcon crossed a major milestone in her life: her log passed the
100,000nm mark. A log is, in
nautical terms, the equivalent of a car’s odometer. 100,000nm is a major accomplishment, and is equivalent to
sailing four times around the world!
We celebrated by snapping some photos of the entire crew attempting to
spell out 100,000 using an engineer in a fire suit as the “1” and five
liferings as the “0’s.)
Unfortunately the log’s digital display only allows for five digits, so
after 99,999nm it clicked back to 0.0 again. Shhh…don’t tell anybody, they’ll think she’s a new yacht!
After stopping in Gibraltar for about five hours, it was
back out to sea again to head to our Summer home of France and Italy. By the time the month of July ends, the
Maltese Falcon will have traveled some 5,000nm in less than 30 days.
The Falcon and her crew are gearing up for an action-packed
summer around the Mediterranean.
Check back soon for more updates!
Jeremy Smith
Deckhand
