Saturday, July 12, 2008

Day 3

Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:00:00 UTC
[Volvooceanrace.org] Skipper Bouwe Bekking, reports from on board Telefonica Blue, on the third day of the Spanish team’s two-boat 2,000-mile qualification run.
After the encounter with the boat people we once again realise how relative life is and how fortunate we are. I don’t want to talk about this right now, but our thoughts are with the survivors.

The last 24 hours have been very good sailing-wise, we were engaged in a full racing mode when we went through the Strait of Gibraltar. The breeze picked up from 5 knots to 22 knots in a matter of minutes and both boats had a bit on with sail changes. The current was against, so were short tacking up the shore line. It meant no watch system for a full 5 hours with all hands on deck.

Telefonica Black had very good pace and we had to work hard to keep up with them, due to some local knowledge we passed them, but after that we are in shouting range, so its intensive racing.
Once through the Straits we settled in and sailed hard on the wind the entire night. Not a very comfortable motion as the waves were short and steep. As soon as daylight came, we started reaching and two-boat testing again. More than 60 tests were done, a very good day for all of us. Now it is back upwind and making a run way for tomorrow’s testing.

Going to sleep soon and dream about my girls back home, missing them heaps. It has been a hard month in that sense: work, work, work and no family. Love you two! All out from here.

Cheers,BB

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