Keeping it together in the AG2R

The northerly route may not have paid on this occasion for Phil Sharp and David Krizek but at least they have water...

Phil Sharp and David Krizek onboard ‘Atlantick FT’
Day 24 of the AG2R race from Concarneau to St Barth, West Indies
Time of position: 1000 GMT
Miles to go: 571
Fleet position: 21st out of 26 starters
Miles Behind Leader: 368.7

Phil Sharp is having a torrid time at sea, but managing to keep his chin up and look to the future. The northerly route that the team chose to take could have gone one way or other, could have kept them on the podium or sent them flying to the back of the fleet. One of the most unpredictable aspects of this sport is of course Mother Nature, which means the skippers are forced to gamble with her games. Phil Sharp’s nature is not one prone to following the rest of the pack, but to take challenges that he believes in. St Barts remains the carrot…..and not such a bad carrot…Phil’s ETA is some time on Thursday 15 May.

“Well the last couple of days have been mentally very tough for David and I as we have been stranded in ghostly light winds watching literally the whole of the rest of the fleet sail past us to the south: We have been trying to push south, along with Goupe Celeos, who went on a more extreme southerly diversion, which paid off to their advantage. When you’ve gone from being at the front of the fleet directly in touch with the leaders to the back it is extremely difficult to swallow and it is all too easy to slump into self pity over the situation. We feel robbed to a certain extent, and both firmly believe that a lot of bad luck has come our way to contribute to our currently rubbish position. However the last thing we’d ever want to do is end this race on such a downer. David and I have proven to ourselves that we can make a very competitive team out there, have been pushing hard every inch of the way, and following this overturn my frustrations are being taken out into pushing this damned boat as hard as ever towards the finish. It is for sure not meant to end like it is now, it’s the last thing we deserve, so you can count that we'll be fighting until the end, until we cross that line and smell the toxic white Caribbean rum with our names on it.

“The silver lining to the cloudy race situation was that yesterday I celebrated my 27th birthday, my first in the middle of an ocean with no beer, chicks or parties to distract me. For this reason it is probably one of the few I will remember properly! It started promptly at 0030 when I took over for my shift and David presented his present: a bar of Milka chocolate. Unbelievable how we could stash that away so long - words cannot describe the value of such a gift under desperate rations! David also caught me some breakfast this morning. I handed over the helm to him and he amazingly lured up a flying fish from the ocean onto the deck within about 1 minute of driving. I grabbed it instantly before it fell off the back and managed to cook it without burning myself, which was a bonus. We also solved our water shortage. After resorting to 1 litre per day down in this hot environment things were getting uncomfortable until a huge rainstorm
passed over us. By catching the water running off the mainsail we had collected two full buckets within just 10 minutes, and the kettle was back up and running instantly for very overdue tea.

“It also really brightened up the day reading all the fantastic emails of support, thank you! It's an incredible boost to have a great team of supporters, especially at such a low point with great pick-me-ups such as: "every day longer on the ocean is better than a day in the office" Great stuff, keep them rolling in! Right, time to get back on it. I can almost smell that rum. Phil”

Phil is sponsored by Dominion Fiduciary Services Ltd (DFSL) The Jersey based private trust administrator will become principle partner of Phil Sharp Racing with a view to supporting Sharp as he works towards his ultimate goal, an entry in the 2012 Vendée Globe.