Finally, this looks like an F1 race. We’ve been tight reaching for the last 20 hours, and the boats have started crossing, not at high speeds really, but watching how each of them progresses is nevertheless spectacular.
“Team Brunel”, which was to windward, is now to leeward, and “Team SCA”, which was to leeward from the very beginning of the race, is now to windward after crossing last night. They’ve almost caught “Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing”, 7 miles ahead of us. “Dongfeng Race Team” have been very conservative, as us.
As Jean Luc’s forecast predicted, the wind is slowly dropping, same thing as the routing forecast showed. We’ve been mostly sailing with our J1 until the breeze dropped under 14 knots, and then we changed to the FRO. “The girls must be struggling with this wind shift, cause their FRO is destroyed”, says Rob G. Having a damaged sail can really harm you at this stage of the race. From the beginning Iker said, “the sails must be looked after as if they were our girlfriends, they are the boat’s engine.”
We keep sailing up, heading to the Northeast, and we are bound to tack tonight with the trade winds shift. We’ll sail close to Fernando de Noronha again, the island we went by at the beginning of the race.
This is becoming more interesting all the time. The next few days will be full of action and “Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing” looks well positioned right now.
Ñeti’s been feeling unwell due to an ear infection, apparently. He’s been resting, he was put down to the flu, but he’s recovering now and will soon be doing his watches again. Pablo assisted him from land and we hope he gets well soon.
#vamosMAPFRE
Fran