Leaving the Rotterdam Gate Race, on leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Galway to Marstrand. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Gabri Olivo
This is simply crazy... This morning we've been through the transition of the low and we were with no wind at all. Knowing that the others were sailing along nicely, we were feeling like a mouse stuck in a trap... not nice at all.
After few hours, we realised that it wasn't too bad, our friends on Telefónica Black were still behind us with Delta Lloyd next to it and, more important than anything, Puma was 20 miles away.
By the time we got into the coast trying to get to Roshage point, the wind turned from a nice reaching angle into a nasty beat swinging 60 to the right. Because of the angle between the coast line and the new wind, we have now to tack every 10 minutes with full stack every time, trying to climb up until the top of Denmark which is 70 miles away.
Everyone is awake and fully operating in inshore mode and we will have to tack at least 25 times in the next four hours. If you think of all what we have been through until now, this could be defined as a ‘mass suicide’, where we all could be persecuted by the law as some kind of ‘religious fans’, where our God is the willing to win. But all the fun isn't over yet, if the last 100 miles plans out like the leg has been so far, well ‘better put your seat belt on’.
Volvo Ocean Race
No comments:
Post a Comment