CLIPPER RACE LEG 1: RACE 2: PUERTO SHERRY TO PUNTA DEL ESTE – 23 SEPT 25

Direct from our Marlow Ambassador: JT onboard Team Warrant

Days 1–2: Light Winds, Black Sails, and a Tactical Start to the Atlantic

Race start at Puerto Sherry had light winds, and the marina exit and start line were dotted with leisure cruisers, small boats, windsurfers, and a youth Optimist dinghy race.

It coincided with the Globe 40 race start out of Cadiz, and we saw their black sails heading to Cape Verde. Some crew visited the night before and met Clipper Race Alumni Melodie Schaffer, who competed in the 19/20 Round the World Race and shared her experiences.

Team Warrant began our beat to the Atlantic on a starboard tack, pointing slightly higher than competitors, hoping to make the mark on one tack. The wind veer came earlier than expected, and deeper, faster boats also made the mark, gaining distance.

Overnight we hoisted the Code 2 spinnaker after rounding the mark, but a localised wind hole made it unmanageable and it came down within an hour.

Working with Marlow, Clipper introduced a new wooling system using recoverable 8mm floating nylon lines tied in staggered slip hitches to reduce synthetic wool loss and microplastics.

Our first attempt didn’t go well and needs practice. Several hours were spent managing one of our largest sails in tight space, testing knots and tightening rolls, leaving some crew low on energy for their next 6-hour watches. With our Code 1 up, we’ll try again with a more manageable sail and better crew understanding.

We start night two 20 NM behind a pack of four and are clawing back the gap.

We’ve covered 250 NM, with 5,025 NM to Uruguay!

Day 3 and 4: Kite Challenges and Night Sailing

Our Code 1 has been flying for almost two days. While I have some night helm experience from previous long passages prior to Clipper, flying the kite for long stretches overnight in varying wind conditions and visibility has been quite novel.

There is an ethereal sense of isolation in the pitch black, relying on our steaming light to see and trim the spinnaker, with only the noise of the waves and flash of white breaking water to give any perspective of up and down let alone port or starboard. With only a few visible stars and a trail of bioluminescence in the wake, we could be carving through the night sky rather than across the ocean on our way to the Canary Islands.

As we approach the islands and make our tactical calls on routing, we have passed one of the trailing pack and are closing in on another… but almost the entire fleet are facing an engulfing windhole which may lead to a bit of a race reset.

Day 5 and 6: Wind Holes, Sail Wraps, and Whale Encounters off West Africa

After flying our kites successfully for a few days in a row, we fell victim to the wind holes.

A successful re-hoist of the Code 1 with the new lacing system, took us into the night sail east of Fuertaventura.

Here we encountered squid fishermen with lights in the water and unmarked (AIS) vessels, but worse, swirling winds that could not find direction. Surviving a few quick gybes, eventually our Code 1 became wrapped on the forestay in the middle of the night and as we fought to release it we lost a panel.

Some of our crew have been working on the repairs, recording the date and reason on the repair (“Canary Crazies” 19 Sep 2025) and in the meantime we are on white sails, but sailing deep on a broad reach. With winds filling in briefly this evening we will err on the side of caution and hold off on a Code 2 hoist.

In the process we have lost the place we gained, but we are still close to a handful of the fleet and as the past few days have shown us, a lot could still change!

As day 6 draws to a close, we have now covered over 1,000 NM and are skirting down the coast of West Africa towards Cape Verde awaiting updates on the developments on the weather patterns and potential wind holes.

On a different note, over the past few days we have at times been joined by some dolphins and pilot whales and have witnessed sperm whales surfacing and breaching just off our beam. These brief events certainly lift people’s spirits!

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