What a farewell in Newport. The bay was packed, and conditions couldn’t have been better. Neither could have the really good mood onboard after the In-Port win.
Our goal is a podium finish. The boat and the guys did a great job at the start of the leg and that put us in a really good position during the first hours.
Shortly after the start, the light breeze and the transitions made things more difficult. In certain windless moments the current would put us adrift.
We are heading to the southernmost point of the exclusion zone and it’s cold. Following our strategy of constant attack we tacked and positioned ourselves in the third place, right behind Azzam.
It’s the first night at sea and truth is it hasn’t been as terribly cold as we were expecting it to. We’ve pulled out our thermals, hats, boots, and gloves, but in a couple of days it’ll be worse and colder. This is the last offshore leg and we do want to sail at our best.
It’s going to be nine days of intense sailing. At the start we realised how much we’ll have to push, and also that each decision is going to be key.
“MAPFRE’s goal is to sail really fast to the high pressure to connect with the European trade winds with a good leverage, expecting the bungee effect to benefit us”, says Jean Luc Nélias.
#vamosMAPFRE
Fran
