having left Norfolk together, 34' RUFFIAN is 5 miles ahead of 46' SERAFINA! Fiona and Iain are racers, through and through! 60 hours non-stop husband and wife crew on RUFFIAN had to be full on in the cockpit steering and trimming in the Gulf Stream. They are something, those two! They love rallys!,...they get to race!

This is pretty amazing post from SERAFINA, another able couple crew.

"Serafina
10 Nov 2013 / Comments Off

30:57.10N 68:37.63W

Sunday 10th November

So I had no sooner posted yestdays blog when we got an urgent email from the weather team warning all boats of a major new pair of low pressure systems that were going to produce serious gales well in excess of what we had just endured. But there was good news in that all we (Serafina) have to do to escape this further madness is get ourselves south of a point that was around 200 miles south and east of our present position by Tuesday. Boats behind us were advised to make for Bermuda or take similar action to avoid further seriously bad conditions. So we were now energised into action and given that we were pottering along in just 8 knots of wind, Sarah decreed that we had to get Flossie, our 165% light-weight headsail (Code Zero) up and flying. So in no time we were back whizzing along and during the afternoon we caught up with ‘One Two’which is a catermaran also on the same rally as us. We chatted on the VHF and then as darkness fell the wind died on us and we decided that since our first priority was to get further south ASAP, we both started our engines and motorsailed gently at low revs, into the night.

Whilst we were in Hampton, Virginia waiting for the off, we had spent a lot of time with our friends Iain and Fiona (Sadler 34) ‘Ruffian’. They had anchored just outside the marina and were using us as their shore base. We both left about the same time last Tuesday but have since then we have both sailed some 700 miles following wildly different courses as needs must and so you can imagine our complete surprise when around midnight last night we found ourselves just 5 miles behind them! We had a great chat on the VHF and they filled us in on their nightmare which included 60 straight hours with the two of them on deck taking turns to either hand steer or trim sails as they took a fearful pounding in the Gulf Stream. But they were fine and looking forward to a few days of more relaxed sailing! They are both intrepid and very resilient.

The wind picked up a bit this morning so Sarah opted to fly Flossie again, setting all the sails without bothering to get me out of bed which was a real bonus and we had a wonderful sail for several hours but the wind kept increasing so eventually we had to bring Flossie down and run under a conventional foresail and main.

We have made good ground and might even reach the ‘safety’zone later today which will be comforting. What next we wonder!

Heard more bad news about other less fortunate boats and sounds like ‘Jamming’ lost their rudder and we have not heard the outcome of that yet, but the boat is their home so we are hoping that it was not scuttled after their rescue.

Life returning to normal here and gradually we are getting back into proper routines, but we had hoped for flatter seas today, but we will take this over the storm behind us."

And once they outsail you, team RUFF, as they call themselves, will drink you under the table.