Cam Lewis celebrates birthday off Buenos Aires in The Race
by Keith Taylor 7 Mar 2001 07:03 GMT
CAM LEWIS OF TEAM ADVENTURE CELEBRATES HIS BIRTHDAY OFF BUENOS AIRES AS BOAT SPEED INCREASES
Cam Lewis, skipper Team Adventure celebrated his birthday today as the 110-foot American catamaran sped north for the second straight day in moderating conditions and warmer weather.
Lewis reported that his cat was positioned 1,000 miles due east of Buenos Aires and 2,780 miles due west of Cape Town, with 2,200 miles to sail before it reached the Equator and 5,300 miles remaining to the finish in Marseilles.
His satellite email message coincided with the news that Innovation Explorer, the second-placed boat in the Race of the Millennium and a sister ship of Team Adventure's, had just crossed the finish line.
"Our boat speed is 20 knots but our wind instruments are dead and my best guess at our speed is 16 knots of wind from the northwest as we head northeast on the port tack, carrying full mainsail and the Solent jib," Lewis said.
"We came out of the fog into the sunshine this afternoon and maintained great speed all day on a good beam reach, making some good miles. Our daily run for 24 hours is back up to 450 miles. Everything on the boat, on deck and below was getting very moist with a few days of foggy weather, and then we punched through the weather system into clear blue sky and have been enjoying the warmth of solar power. There has been only one sail change, down to staysail for two hours, and then back to the Solent, otherwise it has been straight line speeding."
Referring to his birthday, Lewis said: "Today marks the beginning of my 44th lap around the sun. I am still working on my second lap around the planet.
"Our biggest problem is sorting out the wind instruments. After a few hours of work by our co-navigators Jean Yves Bernot and Larry Rosenfeld, they have narrowed down the problem to either the masthead unit that has the anemometer wind cups and direction sensor, or the cable inside the mast that brings the information down to the computers.
"We will have to wait for some very calm conditions for someone to go to the top of the mast and replace the masthead unit. This may not happen for a few days. Going up the outside of this huge mast of ours is no picnic. The mast is huge - 150-feet meters tall and in section five feet fore and aft. We can go aloft inside or outside the mast. To haul someone up, we need good climbing gear, helmet, radio, suction cups to hold on to the mast and more.
"We sail the boat by numbers - boat speed, wind speed true and apparent, wind angles true and apparent, and magnetic or true compass course. These are the key readouts we usually sail by. With only boat speed and compass direction available, we now have to use our basic skills to keep sailing at optimum performance. This should not slow us down much as we have a few miles under our belts and can pretty easily trim and select the sails by eye and feel."
More Information: