The Maiden Factor Blog

The fickle breeze that has been the theme since the start of Leg 4 looks set to continue into next week.

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The boats taking part in the Ocean Globe Race are having a frustrating time trying to keep moving as they sail in and out of the many small weather cells that pop up and move away at random. It is slow going in the holes, with huge losses and gains quickly being made.

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Pen Duick VI and L’Esprit d’Equipe came screaming up the East of the course yesterday in great breeze as the boats out to further West sat in no wind. They are now both back in the fight for good positions. It looks like the boats will move as a pack next week once the reluctant Trade winds finally fill in and carry them to the Doldrums, where the next challenge begins.

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Maiden has had some issues, not only with the disappointing breeze, but also with mechanical problems on board. The most critical of these was the inability to use the watermaker. Racing boats do not carry huge amounts of fresh water as it is so heavy , they rely on the watermaker to desalinate sea water. They got lucky yesterday with the big rain squalls that are going through. They managed to collect a lot of rain and fill the tank.It takes a bit of ingenuity to work out how to get rain into a water tank, as the filler hole for the tank is only about 2 inches. My guess is that they got everything imaginable that would briefly hold water, including sails, gathered as much as possible then used stirrup pumps to quicky pump it into the tank before it sloshed everywhere.

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Stirrup pumps are wonderfully simple and reliable hand held pumps like big bicycle pumps. They are immensely useful and versatile as an emergency bilge pump as well. I know there are 3 on board as I bought them in Cape Town. When I put them on board, I thought they would be used to pump water out, not put it in, glad they are of use anyway!

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By Sal Hunter, original crew member on Maiden in the 89/90 Whitbread Round the World Race. Photo @OGR2023/The Maiden Factor