Going in circles

Going in circles
We left Bergen behind yesterday after a few days of amazing weather and a great event! As we sailed out with the whole fleet it started raining, which was appropriate as it had hardly rained all weekend! We set of to find and anchorage as the race would not start until the next day. We found a nice spot near Fedje island and tucked in for the night.

I (jet) went to bed after seeing a spectacular sunset behind the low islands along the coast and woke this morning as the sun had just risen but was covered with clouds and rain was pouring down. We got the anchor up at about 8:15 local time and set of without any wind.

The starting area was only a few miles away and also there was no wind.. the start was postponed twice until 2 hours later, with a starting direction going North instead of South as the wind was still weak and the current very strong. And up we all went… but getting down again was a bit more of a struggle. Getting around the waypoint with 60 vessels storming at it, was chaos.. and then the wind died out.. Some made it around in time… we almost did… but then drifted in again.. we tacked twice and then got passed the waypoint. We picked up some wind again and at one point there were vessels drifting backwards as we were doing 6 knots towards them…

Right now we are drifting as well. No wind at all… we just did 1 knot backwards, that is how strong the north running current is..

Our new group on board is doing really well! With this weather there are no seasick people and everybody is finding their spot and learning the ropes. The atmosphere is very relaxed! So much even one would almost fall a sleep behind the wheel!