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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
Gino
Morrelli's Chrono Depart Chelsea Pier 10/05/01 approximately 8:30 am We motor past destroyed World Trade Center, past the Statue of Liberty and under Verranzono bridge on way to Sandy Hook to pickup Steve Fossett. We raise main to 2nd reef and continue to Sandy Hook. We rendevous with Sea Tow vessel near Sandy Hook and take Steve aboard.
We finally backwind solent and complete tack to starboard and head towards Ambrose. Wind is light, 4-6 knots out of west at this time and not to encouraging. We motor sail towards Ambrose Light and begin to pick up some South West Breeze. We decide to set blast and sail towards Ambrose Light to check out wind conditions and angles. We are picking up more SW breeze all the time and decide we can start anytime we are organised. We sail within 1/2 mile of Ambrose Light and jibe away. We reach back towards harbor organising sails and equipment for final run into start. Stan has contacted pilot at Ambrose and made him aware of our intentions. Scully is driving as we go head to wind and tie off props for several minutes.
PlayStation crosses the line at Ambrose at 17:19 GMT 10.05.01 (1:19pm EST) We are flying full North carbon spectra main and Halsey Lidgard Cuben Solent. We are sailing at approximately 120 TWA 26-29 TWS and 21 kts BS. (Definitions: TWA = True wind angle TWS = True wind speed BS = Boat speed) 10.05.01 8:35 pm EST First Night Out, going fast, full main and solent 26-29 TWS BS approx same @ 120 TWA Flat seas offs Nantucket Shoals, 10 crew Steve Fossett, Stan Honey, Ben Wright, Peter Hogg, Dave Scully, Dave Calvert, Dave Weir, Shaun Biddulph, Paul Van Dyke (Worley) and myself.. So far so good 40 miles ahead in 7 hours. Big low stalking us, if we slow were screwed, but so far so good. Had chicken and corn on the cob , dinner was good. Daggerboard on starboard side no Hum? Port side Hums??? Glad I sleep on Stb…. |
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
10.06.01 5:30pm EST Full main and solent 33 TWS 29 BS 124 TWA 211 degrees direction Flatish seas Two bits of excitement. Hit something with Stb daggerboard. I was in stb nav area with Stan. Sounded hard like wood 4"x4"? Did not hit bow, one shock. No apparent damage. Used orthoscope to check , worked great. Wild look under boat at 20+ knots, water sucking down hull along bottom. Clean flow on board.
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Then 20 minutes later someone holding travelar sheet let it go by accident. Makes a scary noise, I got them to run off downwind and grind up travelar then head back up to course, much faster… old Stars and Stripes tricks… We did 595 miles in 24 hours but there is 605-607 probably in the data. Today will probably be faster. We are pacing a cold front/low. So long as we don't stop we will stay in these good conditions at least halfway across. We watch barometer all the time. If it goes down the lows gaining on us, if it goes up we're gaining. So far so good. Got a long way to go. We've covered 677 mi @ 24.73 avg, approx 175 in front of Jet 5. Its about sunset now, I'm on standby in nav area while Stan sleeps. Off @ 8 pm, on at midnight to 4 am, standby 4am to 8am, off 8am to Noon, then on Noon to 4 pm. Dave Scully and I alternate steering each hour or half hour depending on conditions. |
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
10/06/01 5:35AM EST
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
10/06/01 5:24 PM EST Gino's Email Home Dear Laura, Netty, Gio and Ziggy We are all fine and doing well. We made about 595 miles in our first 24hours, which is good. We still enjoy rather flat seas and nice sunny weather and not to cool at night yet. We are looking forward to another nice night tonight, with most of a full moon to light up our way. We still are weaving our way through ships and some oil rig platforms today. Most of the guys we pass can not believe we are a sail boat going 30kts.. I saw a couple sets of Atlantic dolphin but we are going so fast they do not chase us. The food as usual is not worth writing about. We did have some fresh stuff for the first couple of meals, but salty brown slurry made an appearance at lunch in the form of clam chowder with Peter Hoggs famous green peas!!! Yuck, I had some fried chicken left overs instead.. Much better. Tonight I think we are having spaghetti with real meatballs, could be a winner.. Hope all is well with you all. Love, Dad |
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
10/08/01 3:15 AM EST Gino's Email Home
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We crossed by Flemish CAp where the Perfecct Storm took place. It was shrouded in dense fog to make it even spookier. We are still sailing in fog now. The warm air over the cold :Labradore current makes it foggy. We are maintaining a full time radar watch to make suure we do not hit anything big. We did hit something last night about sunset with the sttb dagger but it did not seem to do any damage. WE used our orthoscope to look at the dag and it appears fine. It was probably a small log or piece of wood/. We expect to be out of the fog in another 4 odd hours . the sea temp got down to about 4 c or 40 odd degrees and the air temp is about 55 degrees. It is quite damp inside the boat as you can imagine, the rain forrest cafe is operating at full rain with a bunch of guys eating and lots of hot water being boiled for Salty Brown Slurry..... I think I might just have a Balance Bar for dinner!!! I hope all is well at home, did Gio get his staples out yet? I can not wait to get back home and see you all. I miss you all a lot. Love
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10.08.01 7:11 am EST Funky night up at midnight and was foggy and cold. We got into a situation that we needed to sail 115 TWA in 30 TWS, That was hard, death zone… I flew it once 30ft high, was good crew work with Scully on travelar dumpinga bit and Dave Weir on jib dumping, he got to mainsheet hydraulic which was good. We needed to be very careful, Puffs were sneaky. Stan said it was due to cold water back to warm water transition. This is where our previous TransAt had got killed in a squall badly handled. Dave Scully sailed the last hour of our watch fine. We are 1175 mi from finish, approx 518 in front of Jet and need to average 12.71 kts to break record. 2 days to go at current pace. Weather still has many challenges so not certain what will happen.
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
Anyway I hope you enjoy these notes.. How are things at home? Is your mom going to stay over a bit while I am gone? Lots of love, Gino
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
10.08.01 4:38 pm EST Just off watch, good run on Great Circle @ 100 degrees x 25-28kts BS for four hours. 115-130 TWA , one reef and solent currently. 898 miles to finish 600 in front of Jet 10.97 kts to tie record 20.05 kts to break 5 days put blast up rolled in case it lightens up tonight, which is forecast. Average speed so far 26.3 kts!! Only complaint is compass lights still too dim. We put glow stick on last night and tonight to see compass with. 10-09-01 5:24am EST Gino Log: It's really like 9 am local but we left on NYC time for watches. Good night last night maintained 25 - 26 Knots pace w 1 Reef and solent, 4 - 8 Ben set blast about 10 pm and we sailed with it this AM in 30 - 31 TWS with reef and blast we cruise at 27 knots @ 133 TWA. Easy in building sea. Right on course We are 578 miles to go to finish now. 7:30 am Went from 1 reef and blast to 2 reef and staysail in last hour as wind is building. Slightly and seastate worsen. Trying to get boat to go ~25 if …. stopped--------- Had to go reef..
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10/08/01 8:57 AM EST Gino's Email Home Dear Laura: We are nearing England now. We are about 300 odd miles from Lizard. It will take 12-15 hours depending on the breeze and waves. The wind has held up its end of the bargain so far, but the sea state was really messed up for most of the day. We finally gave up going real fast , like 30 and now are doing a more sedate 20 ish to try and not break anythihng. It is dark and no moon but huge amounts of phosphorescence in the water. As per normal for England,, it is raining off and on.... We will normally head into Plymouth after passing by Lizard. I will try and call you, from the dirt when we get there. I will sort out my travel plans home once we see what sort of hoopla or not is going on. I understand that the US is bombing Afghanistan.... Bet the flight home is empty.... Stan's sister Tammy has a Portuguese Water Dog and her name is Bonny. She 's like 3-4 years old and acts like its 1.5,,,,,, We will have to email Stan a picture of Ziggy and he will get one of her's. All mmy love. Gino
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
Rolled blast in 30+ TWS, was hard but did it. Nice tight roll. We did not take it down till much later. Solent Furling drum cover got knocked askew and prevented us from unrolling once? Dave beat it with rubber mallet back into place and it was fine. We've decided to wait until tomorrow daybreak to even consider setting more sail. We do not want to risk boat or people when record is so close at hand. If we had to we could send it…. but for what? We seem to be able to break the record in less than 5 days, if we can Average 14.47kts now. 255 miles to go 4.64kt average speed required to break record. 2621 miles sailed 25.67 Average speed 751 in front of Jet 14.24 speed to break 5 days.
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2001 Atlantic Record Log |
Written on plane home bound. AA #47 Heathrow - Chicago- OC I left off watch with 255 miles to go. SF went through his watch after us 4 - 8 am with 2nd reef and storm jib. I went off at 8am and when I woke around 11am we were hauling ass. I woke to the sound of going 25 - 28 knots. That roar with the ocean crackling, the noise the water makes as it shears past the dag on the windward side when near flying. I was afraid it was ugly seas 2nd reef and storm sails still, but was very pleasantly surprised to find we had 1st reef main and solent?!! Ben came on at 8am. He started to unreef as sea state calmed down. and within hour went to stay- the unreefed main to first reef, then- solent. As Scully, Dave Weir and I assumed the positions It was a changed world. Sea state way down, going 25-28kts with ~ 150mi to go. We sailed our 4 hours @ 115-120 TWA @ 20-21 TWS We had one wind patch down to 16kts TWS that had us all worried somehow it was going to glass off and strand us one Ensenada race distance from finish! We unreefed to full hoist going head to wind in 24 TWS and kept full hoist main up to the finish. We spent most of the way nervously making jokes and looking for any sign of the wind lighting up. We thought the blast would be next up but with the TWA at 115 degrees it was too close. We pulled the Scilly Isands up on our Starboard bow as Stan coolly prescribed. With 40+ miles to go SF started his watch and brought us to Lands End, Wolf rock and then Lizard. A helicopter came out and whirled around as we closed the last 10 min to the white cottages around the Light at Lizard. Stan asked me to call the instant we past due south of the light by sight over the starboard compass. Then yelling over the copter noise into the helm speaker to Stan down @ the nav table. We had an observer on shore calling the time as well. The official time is 4d-17h-28min We killed the record. Our average speed was 25.78kts and Jets was 18.62kts… 38% faster…
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O R R E L L I . &
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