The race is 561 miles double-handed, with a change of course due to the weather; to avoid a nasty, upwind slog, we are now to be going around in reverse. The course is as follows, to include a short in port race immediately after the start:
Plymouth Breakwater (to port)
Eddystone Rock light (to starboard)
Conninbeg Light Vessel (to port)
Fastnet Rock (to port)
Bishop rock (to port)
RWYC finish line (Plymouth)
It will be an interesting race with Traffic Separation Schemes; basically traffic lanes which are used to regulate shipping in busy, confined waterways and around capes. Between the traffic lanes and the coast there are 'inshore traffic zones', where local traffic, fishing and small craft can go.
On top of the traffic we have the tide to think about; there are lots of shoreline currents and at the Scilly Isles the continuously clocking tidal streams. To get to Conninberg Light Vessel and the Fastnet Rock, we are going to have to cross the Irish sea; a convergent zone of the Atlantic Ocean, the Celtic Sea and the English Channel and the Scottish Sea, it is renowned for rough weather and treacherous conditions near the rock. This is because low pressure systems spin up over Northern Ireland and Iceland, where they build and typically move off to the East or South East.
Really happy to be finally racing the Mini!
Some of the competitors from the La Trinite-Plymouth race sailed back to France today |
We will be taking it in turns to sleep, down below in probably a pool of water. There seems to be a bit of heat given off my the radio and AIS; I think this is just an illusion from the light!
For the start we have 16 knots from the SW forecast, which looks set to build to 25 knots by the evening. As we get into Monday the wind is set to clock more towards the west / north west, at about 20 knots. Tuesday we have a big low pressure coming through bringing a minimum of 25 knots from the SSW, but hopefully we won't see much more than this...or it will be serious Buckaroo on the Mini!
You can follow the race with Yellow Brick here: http://yb.tl/minifastnet2013
On Twitter: @Fastnet650