Tweet
"I sit here on this superbly beautiful morning, I always try to sleep in. It is so hard to do. Something draws me to wake up at first light. I fought it this morning to no avail. I put my eye mask on, breathed deep and tried to relax. But then duty called and I had to go use the head anyways.
So why not get up and have a breakfast smoothie with granola while watching the sunrise? I go to sleep at dark anyways. I wake up at midnight UTC a couple hours later and then I go to sleep until day break. Maybe another up at 2 or 3 UTC to trim or check and make sure everything is okay.
It is so unbelievably beautiful here. It reminds me of Hawaii. Sailing the Holo Holo clockwise around O’ahu. In the early morning on the southeast side of the island the wind would die down and we would delicately float with just the wind shear and slight current pushing us to the south side and finish of the 24 hours race.
This morning the wind in the South Atlantic was very light 9knots downwind with the A2 up but then all of a sudden as the sun
peaked over the horizon a glorious breeze emerged and we are back off to the races. I sit here looking at the blue, this deep clear blue and the whitest of whites tiny crests that come off the wake of First Light’s starboard aft corner.
There is always a ting of loneliness, sadness but this morning I tear up not because of sadness but because this is exactly
where I want to be. Sitting with the warm sunrays breathing life into my cells. The trades are where I always belonged and I will miss them so much in the next week or so when I brave the South. But as of right now…I will continue my daily chores, make a post for social, eat, maybe wax my legs today, do laundry, rig check and continue inventory to make sure I’m not eating too many snacks before Christmas.
Thank you all for joining me for this mornings breakfast."
Cheers!
Cole
November 16th
Cole Brauer, aboard First Light, is delivering a great performance. Today, at around 1:00 PM UTC, she overtook William Mac Brien on Phoenix, who had set sail a week earlier. The American skipper, holding the 24-hour VMG distance record with 230 miles, is now in a solid second place in the overall ‘virtual’ rankings for the expected finish. Philippe Delamare holds the lead, while Dafydd Hughes is in third.
November 17th:
This last week of sailing saw many boats crossing the light winds of the doldrums. Boats arrived at speed carried by the north east trades and had to patiently navigate through unstable light airs before hooking onto the steady south east trades. This typically causes an elastic effect with a temporary reshuffle of rankings. As of this morning Ronnie Simpson has reclaimed his third place overall in the virtual ranking, aided also by a light wind patch that engulfed Dafydd Hughes in the southern Indian ocean, who struggled for progress over more than 24 hours seemingly becalmed.
https://globalsolochallenge.com/tracking/