The wind was stronger than expected after the start of leg two of the The Atlantic Cup presented by 11^th Hour Racing. The teams were able to make their way down the coast of Long Island “faster than traffic moves on the Long Island Expressway!” said Mike Hennessy of Dragon. “This first leg to point alpha has turned into something of a drag race. We kept with it over the night and it got pretty light air for a while. Then the wind moved way forward this morning and started to build a bit. Around 9am we had about 4 other boats in sight and now we’re all sort of tacking our way up to point alpha to make the turn and head up to Portland.”

The tricky light air conditions kept the teams up at night, working hard to get any extra fraction of a knot of speed to gain over their competitors. This afternoon Tristan Mouligne of Toothface filled us in: “We are going good at the moment, it was a long night, I stayed up through the night until about 4 or 5 this morning trying to hang with Amhas and, as per usual, they’ve squeaked ahead a little bit but only just, they’re still right here, we can see everybody. We’ve got Tales up to windward a little bit, Amhas just in front, Eärendil just in front of us to the left and we can see Oakcliff and Dragon a little bit to leward of us. The only boat we can’t see right now is Talanta. But we’re all together, tracking each other on AIS, checking boat speeds and trying to keep the boat moving.”

Earlier this evening, Tales II, the winner of Leg 1, was the first to round the first mark, point alpha, which is the course mark set to take the boats around the treacherous Nantucket Shoals. With the wind behind them and increasing steadily their boat speed has shot up to 14 knots and they’ve been able to extend their lead. The other boats are anxious to make the turn as well: “We’re going to make it around the corner then we’re gonna put up the big stuff and send it the whole rest of the way!” says Rob Windsor of Amhas.

Dave Rearick, the winner of the 2013 Atlantic Cup pres. by 11th Hour Racing weighs in on what tonight might look like for the fleet: “The weather forecast shows an increase of windspeed through the night which could result in boat speeds of 20 knots. Projections right now are for a 4:30am finish but as the winds increase to 25-30 kts preservation of the boat is vital. Any gear breakage can cause a loss of a couple of places especially since all the boats are within 8 nautical miles of each other. It’s going to be an exciting night!”

Coming into Portland early in the morning light with strong breeze won’t be an easy feat: “I think the next challenges to get through are getting past the lobster pots and when it gets up to 30 kts tonight make sure we don’t blow up any spinnakers or do any crazy wipe outs or break anything.” says Rob Windsor, Amhas. “If you run over a lobster pot when you’re going down wind with the spinnaker up its a nightmare. You have to take the kit down, turn around, put the bow of the boat into the wind and then go backwards to try and get the boat off. So we’re gonna be really careful about that.”

Stay tuned and watch the action on the GeoRacing tracker here as the boats race to the Sea Bags Finish Line in Portland!