After 7 days barely seeing another boat at about 2230h Friday a boat was spotted about 0.5 mile to windward. Who should it be but Selene. So > 1000 miles into the Atlantic with > 200 other boats to see, Heartbeat IV and Selene meet up; have adjacent moorings on the River Crouch in Essex, UK; both have flag officers or former flag officers of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club on board; the respective skippers went to school together; both are doctors; both crew and teams have raced against each other in RORC and East Anglian Offshore racing. Selene reported being under reefed main and furled genny – we on 2 reef main and #3. Conditions as North Sea like as possible – with two possible good exceptions slightly warmer and no wind farms.
Selene doing very well – good sailing and tactical decisions, The more observant followers would note we should be far ahead based on TCCs but we hope that now our various probs have been sorted we should begin to make better progress!! Conditions on board – v v wet – impossible to dry anything at the moment so in generally damp clothes. Lots of water across deck. Hope it may improve in next 24-36h. No fishing yet. Seen – 1 dolphin – 20 flying fish – 3m long 3″ hawser (just avoided) – what appears to be Venezuelan Pygmy Hard Hat (not sure about that one) – and two unidentified birds. Images completely fail to show horrible sea state! Note rainbow with Nic and Judy. Bruise one of our substantial collection!
