Steve Thomas and Chris Morton started the 2nd leg of the Transquadra from Madeira to Martinique at 15:00 1st February with an expected race time of 15 to 17 days.
The forecast for the first few days suggests we should push south to pick up moderate trade winds but not too far as the wind later in the week looks too strong for us. We will perform better by sailing a deeper straighter course. The planing boats should get an advantage in the second week if further south, but that remains to be seen .
FEBRUARY 4 UPDATE
Three days after leaving Madeira we are now experiencing proper trade wind saling in steady 15-20 knot NE warm winds. Up to now although the winds have been behind us they have been shifty and squally causing us to damage our small spinnaker last night. We have now decided to fly the large runner during the day and code zero at night . The nights are long and currently no moon after midnight and so we can't see the squalls coming , All well on board making an average off 175 miles a day although not directly to the finish as we need to get south to avoid light weather later this week.
FEBRUARY 8 UPDATE
Day 7 and nearly half way. We are now in the mid Atantic in 18-24 kn NE warm winds. We've broken our carbon spinnaker pole and so are now sailing with a poled-out headsail. It's slower but not much as we are always above hull speed and still surfing. Life on board is easier as this setup requires far less concentration. We dumped the remaining, by now not so fresh, food today and as we now have a forecast to the end of the race were able to use our excess water to freshen up. We will have this wind until next Tuesday then it will increase to 30 kn plus for three days. Very early prediction has us finished in time for last orders Sunday 16th.
Our progress can be followed on the Transquadra website tracker.