A report from John Burnham, not quite halfway to Bermuda on a 1930s Sparkman and Stephens design.
Twenty four hours after the start, Dorade entered the Gulf Stream, after reaching and running in a northeasterly breeeze of 14-27 knots since the start. With it’s 6-foot tiller, the boat is sometimes pretty hard to muscle down a straight track through the waves, but other times sails beautifully forward. We’ve been making 8, 9 and even 10 knots at times, and as of 2:15pm were making 11 knots over the bottom assisted by the Gulf Stream current.
We started with a running spinnaker and carried it, with and without staysails for most of a very pleasant afternoon. As of 6pm, we could still count 90 boats around us, although some were disappearing ahead at a rapid rate. In the evening we switched to our medium-heavy No 1. genoa, which we flew all night with an inner foresail inside it in the foretriangle.
Read more: http://www.boats.com/blog/2012/06/dorade-log-5-entering-the-gulf-stream/#ixzz1y8xIj6Rv