The wind quickly picks up and becomes "hang on" mode, onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Galway to Marstrand. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Gabriele Olivo
After spending two weeks in an extremely welcoming town, where everyone was involved in the race, from the bus driver to the waiter of every single restaurant, we finally set off again.
Green Dragon seemed to know the bay quite well and they soon got into the lead straight after the start, followed by the rest of the fleet. For us was a pin start close to PUMA, starting what it seems to be a very exiting duel for the next three legs.
During the first few hours was a neck to neck with PUMA and Ericsson 4 and by 9pm we were flying downwind on more than 30kn of speed. We showed great improvement with our new A2 and we're very happy about it. Our first objective of this leg was to hang on with the leaders until the Fastnet, and we did so. Was great sailing and beautiful landscape, gybing down the cost of Ireland close to the cliffs as much as we could. All hands were on deck, we didn't start the watch system until 12pm, when we passed the Fastnet Rock.
After that, we peeled to the J2 and started the fire hose straight to the face. What a beginning of a leg. This morning we were all close to each other, with Ericsson 4 and PUMA slightly ahead of us and Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd just to leeward of us. Within four hours things changed dramatically. The wind softened up and the leaders got sucked into land, while the guys offshore managed to maintain the pressure all the time, climbing back mile after mile. We had to gybe three or four times to position ourselves where we thought was best.
So now we're into lead but it seems that Green Dragon and our sistership Telefónica Black are going to cross in front of us having a more offshore position. It looks like is going be a very long and stressful four days, where whoever wins will have handles the pressure better, but not only the isobaric one. We know that we have to push hard if we want to stay ahead of PUMA and Ericsson 4. So no time for sleeping or resting, right now, for every little change, everyone is on deck ready for action.
Strait of Malacca part two, here we come!
Volvo Ocean Race
No comments:
Post a Comment