Scoring Gate

Woke up to more pleasant downwind sailing.Code 2 spinnaker up but the wind gradually dropping.3 yachts visible behind, Korea,Punta,and Seattle. Code 2 comes down and code 1 in the light conditions.At one stage the wind drops out to 3 knots and is very difficuit to keep the kite drawing. We mange to at times gain ground and at other times we are being caught.By time of the following watch we are the most windward boat ,a distinct advantage given the tight course of 90 to 100 wind angle

0800 bit under 50 miles to the scoring gate , Korea had gone from leeward of us to windward and were 1.9 miles closer to the gate than us . Beam reaching with the code 2 plus staysail in 10 to 15 knots at tight true wind angles of 90 to 100 degrees. Our helms steer a good course and the spinnaker is well trimmed and we were sailing faster than Korea for the first 3 hours of the watch and manage to peg back 1.4 miles. At the end it seems they were able to go lower and faster and regained a little of their lead .Early on the next watch they cross before us. We get 2 points for 2nd through the gate meaning we have 7 out of a possible 9 points from 3 races.
We are continuing our reaching course at present but know there is some real weather ahead of us in the forming low. A long way to go in this race yet.



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