Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

In spite of having problems with their furler, Ellen MacArthur and Greg Homann are managing to maintain their position amongst the first 12 boats in the fleet. As they cannot roll up their head sail, this causes problems when they need to paddle so they are hoping that the wind doesn’t drop in the coming days.

After a night of pouring rain on the island of Lappo, the fleet started today, the third day of the Archipelago Raid, at 5 a.m.. This was two hours later than originally intended, due to flat calm in the early hours. The start was eventually given in 15 knots of north-easterly winds and the Formula 18 catamarans charged away at full speed under spinnaker towards the five checkpoints before the leg finish at Fårö in the Finnish archipelago.

The Belgian team Patrick Demesmaeker and Michel Proot on RBSC Huysman dominated the fleet, winning the first leg of the day, but were closely followed by the leading pack of the French overall leaders Eric Proust and Romain Matteau on Team Kalix, the Swedes Fredrik Ekman and Gustav Tempelman on Sundsvalls Bygg, and Martin Strandberg and Johan Örtendahl, Team Thule.

The wind has picked up and the boats are reaching speeds of up to 20 knots. No other people or boats are to be seen although there are small, inhabited islands everywhere. At such high speeds, the teams have to be particularly alert to hidden rocks and be careful not to make any navigational errors. Almost 80 percent of the fleet hit rocks this morning and many dagger boards suffered damage.

On this third day of the Raid, the physical demands are already taking their toll. At some checkpoints located on beaches the teams have to jump out of the boat, run up to check in and run back to the boat. Many sailors have been struggling to get back up on the boats…

Yesterday the weather picture was different. The teams had a tough day in light winds and rain in the Åland archipelago. The last teams arrived more than two and a half hours after the leader to the night stop at Lappo, as the wind died and they had to paddle longer distances.

Throughout the day today, the competitors will complete a good 100 nautical miles before they arrive at the last stop of the day, Nagu, in the Finnish archipelago. Tomorrow the fleet will head back towards Rödhamn in the western part of the Åland archipelago.

After leg 3 on Day 2 of the Archipelago Raid, Ellen MacArthur and Greg Homann have made it to tenth place in the fleet.

After only a couple of hours of sleep, they left Lidö in the archipelago of Stockholm at 03.30 to head out into the Baltic Sea towards Åland, an area full of small islands between Sweden and Finland. In light south-easterly winds, at around eight knots, the teams made a few big tacks over the Baltic Sea towards Rödhamn in Åland.

The warm weather that Sweden has seen in the past month is now gone and it is cold and humid,  The water in the Baltic Sea is only 13 degrees Celsius so many of the teams arriving in Åland were tired, wet and cold. In the light winds and open sea brokerage is not yet an issue although the Swedish boat Klinger with Thommy Sundström and Markus Lagerqvist onboard retired this morning after they broke their spinnaker pole yesterday.

The fleet is now heading northeast towards Lappo in the north-eastern part of the Åland Archipelago. They will navigate a number of checkpoints before arriving later on tonight, having sailed around 80-100 nautical miles. As this archipelago is littered with rocks and islands there are many navigational options to choose from and the rainy afternoon will demand good tactics from the sailors. In the light winds, the crews will probably have to execute a bit of the dreaded paddling that the Archipelago Raid is notorious. Early tomorrow morning the boats will set sail even further east towards Nagu in the Finnish archipelago. 

Good evening or “God Kväll” from Stockholm where we are counting down the hours to the start of the Archipelago Raid. As I write, Ellen is kneeling on the floor of her hotel bedroom with charts all around her and a GPS, plotting the route for the first day of the Raid.

It has been a full-on day for all of us here preparing the BT F18. I was sent off to the local chandlery (thanks to all the guys at Benns and One Design!) with a long shopping list of last minute purchases while Ellen and Greg (Homann) worked on the catamaran checking sails, shackles, waterproof seals, etc.

 A couple more things to do tomorrow, but we are pretty much ready… bring it on!

 Katie (Ellen’s PR/PA)

I had an amazing day in Birmingham yesterday at the Climate Change Festival sponsored by E.ON. It was fantastic to speak to so many different groups of people – schools, community leaders, the University, the Housing Association amongst others - who were so passionate about doing their bit to reduce their carbon footprint and it was really good to see how Birmingham City Council were proactively supporting this.

What I saw was a real collection of tangible, visible projects that were actually making a difference in terms of the City’s footprint and should stand them in good stead to help them with their target to reduce their CO₂ emissions by 60% by 2026. That means that this year, each person in Birmngham needs to reduce their own CO₂ emissions by 100kg.

Go for it, Birmingham!

Ellen

Last week was a bit of a whirlwind what with a trip to Paris studying environmentally friendly vehicles, and then heading to Sweden to train on the BT F18 catamaran with Greg Homann for three days ahead of the Archipelago Raid which starts on Friday 13th June.

On arrival in the evening in Stockholm, the weather was fantastic and that great weather carried us through the next three days beautifully. We had great winds, clear blue skies and one of the most beautiful places in the world to sail. It was great to get into the groove of sailing in the Archipelago, and getting used to the navigation and environment over there. We had some gusty moments and close calls, but never capsized, though both of us managed to fall off!

The boat was fantastic, and we were really pleased with her speed and performance. We based ourselves on the island of Sandhamn and sailed from there each day. 

I am looking forward to the Archipelago Raid, though I know that we’re going to be exhausted by the end of it…  Nearly there…

Ellen

You can read more about the race on www.archipelagoraid.com