TEAM RUSSIA EMAIL: 'Strange things happen on boats'

FRIDAY 28 November 2008 18:46

Team Russia – Andreas Hanakamp (Skipper)

It looks as if the mother of calms, the windless area of the century is developing ahead of us. The good news is that it gives the race fans some more days of following the race. The bad news is for the crews onboard who could already do well with a break.

This morning we discovered that we had lost the bottom bearing of the port daggerboard. No idea how this happened in the light conditions, but we all know that strange things happen on boats. Ben, (Ben Costello/NZL) our youngest crew member, volunteered for the short swim in the ocean when we were absolutely becalmed, and found a gaping hole where once had been the bearing. It is only going to be a problem in heavy air, upwind conditions on starboard tack and it doesn’t look like that in the near future.

Wouter (Wouter Verbraak/NED) is spending long hours digesting the weather information to find a way out of the calm waters, discussing it lengthily with me. At the moment, we are sticking to our easterly option as the latest sched showed the same light airs in the west, just from a different direction. It is just so easy to accept gains and so terribly hard to accept losses. The gains you experience as justified, while the losses are unfair. The gains are normal, the losses are big surprises. Reminds me of the stock markets, doesn’t it?

Regards

Received 18:46