Rough weather, onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Bouwe Bekking (skipper)
Another four points in the bag, although this time is wasn’t over until the end.
At first, yesterday afternoon, it wasn’t looking good at all. For some reason we had been losing ground and were in 4th place, a couple of miles behind the leaders.
We had been checking our foils regularly but nothing to see, but during one more check Pepe Ribes saw something. So immediately called or a back-up, (sailing backwards) to get the keel clean. It seemed to take forever before it was off, but finally it cleared. Then the fight was on, and slowly but surely we reeled the boats ahead in.
Rough weather, onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
First Ericsson 3, then Ericsson 4 and finally PUMA. With the last boat we sailed for four hours nearly in reach of other. We could just see them in the fog, and we were in full inshore mode. Giving the helmsman speed numbers to sail to match PUMA. They could have nailed about two hours before reaching the gate, by reaching hard over us, as we had a little less pressure, but they didn’t.
We clawed back and edged a length ahead. For the last six miles, we put the bow a bit more down and slowly stretched on them, and I think we reached the gate about 35 seconds in front of them. No cheers, just a quick well done, as we had to tack to avoid the ice box. Of course we lost miles against the others, but that was the call, still we are close, and it looks like that the high pressure system will slow everybody down, so a small re-start.
Volvo Ocean Race
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