A new week starts and “MAPFRE” keeps sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. In two days, we’ll be crossing the Equator and we will be sailing in the Northern Hemisphere, which is home for most of the sailors in the race. We will feel a bit more like home!
During the afternoon the wind kept slowly shifting and we went from a 80 to 90 degrees reach 140. We were sailing downwind in 20 knots to the NW, up the Brazilian coast full powered. The feeling of ticking miles down really quickly is great, even more if it’s downwind.
We’ve been the whole morning and afternoon fighting our rivals on board Team Brunel. We sail really close to each other, at times we are faster, at others it’s them. It’s fun and entertaining having a team like theirs sailing that close and that makes us focus in the leg in the long term as well. We need to go where we want to go, without other teams putting pressure on us.
The guys are doing well, really well rested. Since we left Brazil we’ve only changed sails four times, and had just a few calls. The watch times have settled well in and come automatically every 4 hours.
The hot isn’t extreme, so you can sleep at any time of the day, even at the bow. The leg hasn’t been tough but we have to push and keep the speed at the top.
Sunday was a really nice day, the sailors could read and call their families. This is the perfect day to call since you can talk in calm knowing you are in the same time zone.
#vamosMAPFRE
Fran