After the sched, we were all really surprised to see Brunel was 22 miles ahead, and that sort of echoed in our heads for a while. For the first time, and quite radically, a boat had got away from the fleet in an extreme way. A spot of light wind they didn’t go through, a shift they were able to catch, and ciao Brunel.
Just six hours before we were alongside each other, and now – look.
Days are stretching more every time, and because we are sailing towards the east the hours of sunlight change really quickly.
The forecast we are receiving regarding the Azores High say there’ll be two clear options: north or south. This causes a big delay on the Estimated Time of Arrival for this leg, and we are already in saving mode. Nothing to worry about, but there are certain things to do, like not leaving lights on or the computer charging if you are not going to use it. Small details… just in case.
Since we are expecting a southerly wind, we’ve only used the Code 0 and haven’t done any sail changes. It’s a good time to finally adjust to the life at sea, something that usually takes between 48 and 72 hours. The guys have been able to rest perfectly well. We are all still in sight of each other, except for Brunel and SCA, but we hope the compressions from here to the Azores High won’t help them as much as this last one.
Today we’ll reach the southern part of the ice exclusion zone, and there’ll be several calls to make. We’ll see what awaits us. Is it going to be a gybe party or will we deal with straight line sailing…?
¡Vamos MAPFRE!
Fran
