by Bouwe Bekking (skipper)
Yesterday was a day of mixed feelings, as Ericsson 3 managed to close the gap right up to their sistership, and we stopped. Puma, who was easily behind us at that stage, kept offshore as a result and kept the breeze a little longer and sailed right around us.
They went stealth, but not much to their advantage, as we could easily spot them when we sent some one up the rig. They had a better angle than us coming at the corner of the exclusion zone, so they made steady gains.
Talking of the whale exclusion zone, the whale must have known that we were coming and welcomed us. We must have seen around 20-25 of them, well outside of the zone around 75 miles out, you just can’t control this kind of thing.
So we were neck and neck with Puma and they just edged ahead of us. But we knew night was coming, and normally always pass during the hours of darkness, and yes this time it wasn’t any different. Slowly but surely, creeping closer to them, just waiting fro an opportunity to pass them. Just before the outer edge of the zone, we tacked a little earlier and slipped right through their lee. Now it is daytime and very often they slip past us, but in the last 3 hours we actually extended on them.
Still a long way to go.
Volvo Ocean Race
Wednesday, 29 April 2009
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