TELEFONICA BLUE EMAIL: 'Hanging in'

Thursday, 30th October, 2008 09:18

Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking (Skipper)

The last 24 hours we have been hanging in, not only sailing wise, but the limited amount of sleep is also taking its toll.

We got rolled by the front last evening, lots of rain and big gusts of wind, up to 40 knots. Immediately after the front, the breeze dropped to a teasing 10-15 knots, but the big seas were still present, so we got rocked around heavily.

We decided to dive south and to see if we could make any gains with our approach towards Capetown, hoping for more pressure. On the mileage table it doesn't look very good, as the leaders still are racing straight to Capetown. It is painful to look at it, but we have to think the long range, how we can get there as quick as possible. We can see that our team mates on the black boat must have had a mishap, as they slowed down dramatically. I can imagine they tipped it in during the front passage, and it takes a long time to get everything back on the rails after a mishap.

Received 09:18