Sunday 22 December 2008 06:37
Telefonica Blue - Bouwe Bekking (Skipper)
As bad the day before was, yesterday was so good. In the early afternoon we wiggled ourselves in the lead. A big call had to made to go either inside or outside a group of islands, and since the sky was clear, we opted to stay inshore as most likely we would keep more pressure. A very good call as Ericsson 4 opted to go outside and they paid heavily for that decision. They went from a comfortable 1st place to 4th - that must have hurt.
From then on we more or less stayed all the same until the sun was setting. Ericsson 3 was always within half a mile of us, and the other two a couple more behind. Then at dawn we had a huge park up again for a couple of hours, and our lead vanished, as a northerly breeze brought the other boats close to us.
We were sailing under spinnakers and we were neck on neck with Ericsson 3. They passed us once, but then we passed them again. We had navigate thought an area of shoals, so tricky for the navigators, not to let us run aground.
Then we got involved in an incident with Ericsson 3. We were both on opposite tack, and we had the right of way. It resulted in us protesting Ericsson 3...I won't go into details what exactly happened so that I don't influence the international jury. The good news is that we got the entire incident on video tape.
From then on we lead until the early hours, all 4 boats within 1.5 miles, like if we were attached with a string, but then we parked up again. It was touch and go as to whether we had to anchor, as there was a strong current against us.
It resulted in PUMA and Ericsson 4 anchoring. We kept a whisker of breeze 2-3 knots and since we were still making slow progress we separated together with Ericsson 3 from the other two. I wasn't very happy with what happened as we ended up going offshore, without actually making distance to the finish. And yes, the other two started moving again, and made huge gains.
I didn't want to put all the eggs in one basket and said to guys, 'we have to bite the bullet and take their sterns, as we have seen a lot of things can happen in no time'. The we picked up a couple of nice shifts and all of sudden we are finding ourselves again in the lead. Happy we didn't stay offshore!!!
So hopefully by tomorrow we are finished. Prediction on the result? What about this suggestion: we could as well decide with the other three skippers to throw the dice, on who is going to win. So much for my prediction about who is going to win.
Cheers,
Bouwe