I spent yesterday convinced that I needed to head for the coast for as long as I dared in order to pick up a stronger wind, and sacrificed over 100 places in order to do so. I was not alone in making this choice.

The wind did arrive, but it was too little, too late. Instead of retrieving over 100 places while I was asleep, I retrieved about 40, leaving me still in the bunch but over 50 nautical miles behind the leaders.

Today’s serious chat subjects included a short lecture about polar diagrams (charts of boat speed against wind direction for a series of wind strengths) and how to use them, given by a competitor whose real-life occupation is extracting information from weather forecasts and using it to help sailors.

I didn’t learn anything new, but it jolted me into making a more technical effort to judge my best course each time I set it, instead of doing it ‘by the seat of my pants’. I spent hours thinking, scribbling and experimenting, and finally came up with a simple technique which is not as accurate as using chart tools on real paper, but did eventually improve my performance once I got the drill right. I can now class myself as an Entry-Level Sail On Line Navigation Nerd, and it was fun making my brain work a bit. Having started the day around 240th position and 54 miles behind the leaders, I am now 182nd and exactly 50 nautical miles behind the leaders. What’s more, I have a plan which I am (once again) convinced will gain me more places during the night.

Let’s see what the cold, hard light (or foggy murk again) of day brings – a knowing smile, or a ‘back to the drawing board’ sigh.

The rest of the race looks like being a bit of a procession (100 boats have already finished), but I’m trying to gain another place by anticipating a wind shift that has been forecast.

My biggest problem is that the last turning mark is close to the shore. Setting up a delayed command for three hours from now is too risky – I’m likely either to turn too early and miss the mark, or carry on too far and run aground. There’s nothing for it – I’ll have to set the alarm for 01:20 and take the helm. Now how many online games persuade their players to do that kind of thing?

Rumour has it that more than one of the first 50 boats in this race was being sailed by someone who also sails the real thing. I wouldn’t be surprised. Several of them are genuinely exhausted, having taken sleep in short bursts just like real singlehanded blue water helmsmen.

It’s a bit like running in the London Marathon – a huge bunch of people trying hard but doing it for fun, and a small cadre of top class competitors taking it really seriously.

I’m hooked. I’ve just registered for the next race – a 6,000-mile haul from Alicante to Cape Town. This time, I plan to start on time, but wifie will be back at home so I’ll have less time to play. A double challenge.

PS. I couldn’t find an alarm clock, so I did my best to set a delayed command that would take me round the mark during the night. This game shows you actual forecasts at three-hour intervals, but changes the wind continuously (presumably by creating smooth transitions between the forecasts) – I ended up having travelled just a tiny bit further than I had estimated.

I turned before I hit the main coast, but my new course ran me aground on a peninsula to the west of my position, in the company of several other boats. I had overtaken several others during the night, but I was still 315th. With a straight reach to the finish after I’d refloated, there would be nothing new or exciting left, so I retired, happy to have learned a lot and made some new friends (there is a chat line open throughout the race, just like the radio channel on a real boat).

Watch this space for reports on the Alicante to Cape Town race starting in five days’ time.

I didn’t register and start the current race (a figure-of-8 course in the Mediterranean, starting from Alicante and rounding the island of Formentera) until about 9 hours late, but it’s been eerily like some of my real-life experiences:

• After I switched off my PC, I realised that I’d set a course to round the marks in the reverse order. Since the course was still a valid option for the correct course, I went to bed.
• I’d set a delayed command to change course round what I thought was the first mark. Just as well that it wasn’t the real mark, because the wind dropped slightly more than expected. When I signed on again this morning, I found that I had turned about 2 nautical miles early and was now a third of the way down the next leg on a dead run in a failing breeze, having missed the buoy.
• In spite of all this, I was now in 374th position in a fleet of 480 boats, one of which had run aground in Tunisia during the night.

I’ll  report on progress later today. I’m hooked.

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