Note from Black Pearl 0800 AST Friday 12th
The race has been a bit of everything. The first half was very pleasant, reaching in good conditions.
We have a very wet period followed by the transition into the northerly breeze.
We expect to be on the wind for the rest of today in 10 to 12 knots with a choppy sea.
Hopefully, the wind veers as forecast, and we can finish on a nice reach and be in tomorrow afternoon.
It seems we having a nice race with the multi-hull and actually were ahead of them on the race course at one point.
They did a better job with a rain cloud (geographical position) and put 30 miles into us. Since then, we've been at a similar speed and coming into them a little.
Once we start reaching, they will be gone again, but it's been fun chasing them.
Very surprising is the lack of sea / bird life and only seen 1 ship visually and 1 on AIS.
We did have a dove hitching a ride for a few hours.