TELEFONICA BLUE EMAIL: 'the repaired spinnaker is not performing at all'

Sunday 26 October 06:55 GMT

Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking (Skipper)

‘All is well tonight here on Telefónica Blue. Nice downwind sailing...I hope you are having a nice evening in RHQ.' This were the words from Sifi (Simon Fisher), our navigator, to let the race headquarters know we are alright.

We have to report this once a day, but at least the duty officer back in England has something to do as well. As far as I know all the duty officers are girls and they are amazingly friendly, helpful and very often remind us of things. Wouldn't be my cup of tea, but thanks girls for what you are doing for us!!

Not a lot is happening, we changed several times sails, but the repaired spinnaker is not performing at all, so we decided to keep it in the bag. In the America's Cup you are allowed to do a so-called chase boat drop. This means you let go all the ropes and the spinnaker falls in the water and get picked up by your chase boat. If we had a chase boat here, the spinnaker would have been long gone, as it is 'lemon' and not of a lot of use for us.

Some Brazilian will find sooner or later one shoe, as one has fallen in the tide. Iker (Martinez) was missing his shoe for several days, but last night it appeared when we hoisted the repaired spinnaker,............it was packed inside the spinnaker, so when the sock opened the shoe appeared, it made one bounce on the deck, and decided to jump ship. Talking of shoes, Jono (Jonathan Swain) is getting a bit twitchy to know how far south the route will take us into Cape Town, as he only has brought shoes. If we go very far south the water will be freezing, so cross fingers it doesn't get too bad for him.

Received 06:55