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RACE UPDATES!

July 31, 2013 (4:30 PM) 

PRIDE FACE TO THE FINISH STALLED … ANOTHER NEAR CALM.

Pride is now 43 nautical miles from the finish – moving at 3.5 knots. At such a rate we might finish near dawn Thursday, tomorrow.  It was a good romp till this afternoon. Now there is a strong thundercloud to our south. Weather warnings are up. Tracking it on radar we see it moving from a location 18 miles south of us eastward toward where we are pointed but fortunately won’t reach before this one concentration of convective weather does. Where we are is pleasant. Warming temperatures, smooth lake surface and light wind providing some speed toward the finish. We all wonder what is happening with the competitors. It is situations like this when a long lead can be lost to different wind patterns for different competitors. Such is racing in sailing vessels with the vagaries of wind.

Jan C. Miles and the relaxed but attentive racing crew of Pride of Baltimore II.

 

August 1, 2013 (9:00 AM)

PRIDE FINISHED RACING EARLY THIS MORNING

At 03 hours, 14 minutes, 10 seconds EDT this morning Pride crossed the finish line for an elapsed time of 62 hours, 14 minutes and 47 seconds over 300 nautical miles or 112 nautical miles per day or an average of 4.6 knots. It was a pretty fickle-wind race – especially at the end. The wind died at least four times along with heading us off a few times. But the race is now done and it is a matter of waiting to see who crosses next and when.

The first competitor to cross the finish line behind us happens to be Niagra. She crossed sometime around 0630 EDT this morning, or so we guess. We saw her on AIS after she finished and we took that position and plotted it and worked backward to the finish line using her speed at the moment of noticing her on AIS. If our calculations are correct she had to finish before 6 AM EDT to beat us on handicap. But I must say, for all of the fickle winds it is impressive to me that she finished as close to us as she did.

There seems to be a AIS reception hole in the middle of the eastern portion of Lake Superior, because we cannot see vessels on the AIS internet web site when vessels are in that hole. We have not yet been able to see Lynx. We did see Denis Sullivan some 90 miles behind when we finished. Also Peacemaker on the north side of the Keweenaw Peninsula, but no Sorlandet. Considering we think we give Lynx 10 hours and 36 minutes, we await anxiously to see if she will cross before 1:50 PM today. Nearly 5 hours away from the time of this writing. Since the wind has now stopped being fickle by being somewhat fresh from the west rather than fickle from the southeast to south to southwest, it is quite possible Lynx could cross the finish line before her time allowance runs out. So we keep looking over our shoulders…till around 2 PM anyway.

Jan C. Miles and the fickle wind sailors of Pride of Baltimore II.