Mini Transat Leg 1 AAR (Part 3)

Days 5-8: Light and Variable Winds

Make sure to check out After Action Review Parts 1 & 2 and listen to me discuss the first four days of this race on The Mini Transat Mission podcast! Click HERE to listen on Spotify.

*0600 UTC on the morning of the fifth day, survived a light wind and damp evening*

Replay the Race Tracker Here

Watch the Day 5 video update on YouTube above

Day 5 / 29 Sept (Atlantic Ocean/Spain)

As the high winds from the front turned into a memory, the night going into the fifth day of racing was light and damp. At one point I moved up to 47th place (I did not know it at the time of course), but mostly hovered around the low fifties. The early morning remained light , upwind sailing with the jib. While we didn’t know exactly what the wind would do, we knew it would eventually fill in and likely from behind. We just needed to be patient and wait. Another challenge I was facing here was my battery power. Even though I have the solar panels and the hydrogenerator, I was not able to charge my batteries much over the past few days. There was not enough direct sun light, and most of the time I was sailing too slow to effectively use the hydrogenerator. This meant from now on I would be doing a lot of hand steering until I could get a good charge. You can see the cloud situation in the picture below was not helping. By 0900 that morning, the wind had continued to shift a bit and I was flying the code 0.

*Wind was still light, with waves pushing the boat around, but at least it was starting to rotate and the sun is up*

As the wind filled in from the NNE, spinnakers were hoisted and boats were playing local shifts just off the Spanish coast. The Cape Finisterre TSS is indicated by the red polygon and is a restricted zone.

By mid-day, the wind starting filling in from the NNE. This allowed us to hoist our spinnakers and start ticking off more miles. It was slow at first, but a much needed improvement. We were also now between the Cape Finisterre Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS) and the NW Spanish coast. I found myself within a pack of Minis (2x Maxis, a Nacira, and an Ofcet) close by and more boats on AIS. This was a nice change, because I could compare my jibing angles and boat speed. With different types of boats in my vicinity, we all have slightly different optimal angles, so it makes for an interesting experience. Terminal Leave was feeling fast, and I was able to make some good tactical decisions as I played the local shifts. Unfortunately, it appeared the wind filled in first close to shore. Some of the boats I had passed the previous evening, once again jumped in front of me by a few miles.

*Finally drying out gear on deck, but not a great sun angle (blocked by sails) so still low on battery power*

The Big Decision

As we passed Cape Finisterre and the southern part of its TSS, we once again were free of any restricted zones again. The major decision now was where to go. Do you hug the coastlines of Spain and Portugal, or how far offshore should you sail? The next 24-48 hours would be the most difficult weather routing decisions that had to be made during the entire leg. There were multiple high pressure systems and a ridge extending from SW to NE (you can see it below depicted by light winds.

At this point, I was still not yet sure exactly where I wanted to go. However there were two key things I was focused on at the time. First, I was not going to make a similar mistake again with sailing away from the fleet. It remained fairly light but manageable downwind sailing into the evening and I continued to play the sifts. Second, with the ridge farther west, I did not want to get close to that line of suspected no wind. As I would find out later from other skippers, that ridge they kept telling us about for days, really did not materialize into a no wind zone. You can see a much of the fleet heading SW towards the ridge in the above tracker image.

Day 6 / 30 Sept (Atlantic Ocean/Portugal)

By the sixth day, I was comfortably in a solid pack of boats for sometime now and off the coast of Portugal. We were all focused on playing the shifts and trying to figure out where the best wind might be based off the limited forecast provided by the race organization. Only rarely would a boat sail away out of VHF range, or sail back into the group. While the wind remained generally light, at least the sun was out shining.

Here are a few key points from my log book from 1300 that day:

Sailing downwind on port with the A2 spinnaker. Boat speed is 4.7 kts in 6.9 kts of wind.
Still low on battery power. Too slow still for hydrogenerator and a bad sun angle for the solar panels (blocked by sails)
Down to the final piece of chocolate on board (I was devastated). Most of my snacks were not sealed up properly and got destroyed during the front on Day 4. I also ate WAY too many snacks/junk food during the first few days of the race.
MP3 player stopped working during the front. “Heartbreaking….my Wilson” is noted in the log. Been awfully quiet since then.

In the late afternoon the wind died completely again for a few hours, then filled back in. Good downwind sailing in initially 5-6 kts by dinner time, then 8-11 kts by late evening.

Day 7 / 1 Oct (Atlantic Ocean/Portugal)

During the early morning hours it remained a downwind sail with a few boats remaining close by and more on AIS. As the wind started to back after sunrise, I started reaching with the A2 spinnaker and quickly switch over to the code 0. The wind fluctuated all morning but was about 7-9 kts at 0930 UTC. You can see the differences in wind velocity in the image below. It turned into a beautiful sunny day out in the Atlantic.

Later that afternoon as the wind increased and we were still on a close reach with the code 0, I actually reefed the main and jib at one point when we became over powered. It felt awesome cruising again at decent speeds and heading towards La Palma. Staying on port tack for most of the day on a reach felt like a drag race. Having the other boats around really helped with shifting gears and maximizing the performance of the boat when I could immediately see what was working and what needed to be improved (sail selection, trim, weight placement, autopilot settings, etc).

By the evening however, the wind shifted again and we were sailing upwind on starboard tack. The wind speed was up and down, with plenty of holes to avoid and small puffs to find. This was very hard to manage at night obviously.

Let’s Talk Weather

Every day at 1500 UTC we receive a weather forecast and fleet rankings (with distance to finish) over the SSB radio receiver. This is a small portable radio, not the big SSB transmitter. The forecast is first provided in French, then repeated in English. It begins with a 5 day general synopsis from 1200 UTC daily (this includes the current day’s forecast). High and low pressure systems, fronts and ridges, and any other major items are provided in this section. Then each pre-set region’s “local” forecast is provided at 12 hour increments (0000 UTC and 1200 UTC) that cover wind direction and speed, barometric pressure, and wave hight (generally only provided if over ~1.5 to 2 meters). Important note: The forecast is for the center of each zone. Not all of the regions are forecasted (depending on fleet location) and the forecast length is based off estimated speed of the fleet moving through. Incase I miss any details, I do have a recorder plugged into the radio to play back the forecast. It is not always clear and easy to hear (and takes additional time playing through), so you write quickly and try to capture as much as you can during the initial transmission.

*Weather forecast zones. On day 7 I was in the “Porto” zone*

Notes for Day 7 / 1 Oct weather forecast (1200 UTC). Keep in mind, we are writing quickly and while the entire boat is moving so please excuse the hand writing. I could read it which was the important thing.

After writing everything down, it takes time to analyze the information. Sometimes it follows a predictable pattern as you track weather systems. Other times, it can feel random and unclear. This forecast was a combination of the two, but still very challenging. I kept getting the sense the forecasts were not depicting the actual weather I was experiencing over the past few days and the forecasted wind speeds were usually higher than observed. The big question was to head south towards the Saint Vincent area (NW winds 4-6 kts at midnight, then NNE 6-9 kts at noon and building) or head southwest towards Josephine East (WSW winds 7-10 at midnight, then NW 4-5 kts at noon and building). Since Josephine West was not briefed, I could assume no boats went that far west. There was also a large concern about the high pressure system (H3) sitting on Madeira and a ridge that kept extending to that area (NE to SW angle). And remember, I can only see the boats within about 15 nm. I have an idea the fleet is pretty spread out since there was a large shift in rankings the previous day or two, but do not know for certain. What do you think you would do in this situation?

Day 8 / 2 Oct (Atlantic Ocean/Portugal)

As we beat into light winds all morning, I was surrounded by a large group of Minis. There were 9 boats within 15 nm of me and plenty more I could hear talking on the VHF radio (but could not see on AIS). Batteries were still low, so I drove most of the morning, but there was good sun that day to help with charging. With the current fleet situation and large tacking angles in light wind, I was hesitant to tack away on the short tack. So I kept heading SE with this group. Talking to some of the other skippers on the radio, they felt a similar way about yesterday’s forecast. Over the next few hours, the wind continued to oscillate, so most of us tacked on these shifts as we tried finding the next puff of wind as well.

The wind speed continued to be light a variable. The forecasts up to this point really were not helping guiding us to the wind, because it seemed light all around the course. By the late afternoon the wind really lightened up. Most of the boats around me were all but drifting. Just before the sun set, I could see the other boats all around me starting to move on AIS with little local puffs of wind. With not much boat speed myself, I had to remain patient for the wind to fill in. This patience quickly dissipated as all of the boats in my general vicinity starting taking off over the horizon. You can see below, they all started heading in the same direction towards the southwest. Despite my best efforts, the wind was not filling in fast enough as I was drifting in the this windless zone.

*Drifting in no wind as I watch my competition sail off over the horizon with slightly more wind*

The wind finally started to fill and eventually reached 10-12 kts. Once again sailing downwind with the spinnaker up, I fought hard to catch up. Even though the tracker shows me not that far back, I didn’t see another Mini on AIS for the rest of the night. I had unintentionally lost the group and once again felt alone and isolated.

Make sure to check out the next AAR (Part 4) where we knock out some serious miles sailing fast downwind for multiple days in a row.

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