Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team
Day One, September 9, 2008
Leaving Lanzarote (Brad Jackson)
I got up for my shift at 04.00 this morning after a very easy evening, for a change and realized that we had left Lanzarote for good after being there for a year. The Ericsson Racing Team will miss Peurto Calero a great deal, we have been extremely well treated and have had a great base to prepare our two boats for the upcoming Volvo Race.
A lot of us have had our kids in school there and it really has been home so it is a little sad that we say goodbye to the Calero family and the good times that we have had there.
I can't say enough for the hospitality and cooperation that Peurto Calero has given us. Saying that we now move on to the next phase of our campaign and all the team are keen to get on with what we are here for and what we have been training for for the last year.
The International team just got back to Lanzarote on the evening of the 7th Sep and headed off to Alicante on the 8th Sep as we did the Maxi Worlds in Sardinia. This was to work on our inshore sailing and combinations and be together as a crew, we had some great racing and a great time, but time was short getting ready to leave and we missed saying goodbye to a lot of people that we have met in Lanzarote.
The shore crew did a great job preparing our boat while we were away and also the Nordic boat so a big thank you to them and hopefully they can get a couple of days off before we arrive in Alicante.
We are currently sailing along in a light westerly and this should build and head into the northwest later on today so this is different to the normal trade wind conditions that we have encountered most of the time here but we are not complaining as upwind in 20 -25 knots is not a whole lot of fun.
We will use this trip to keep getting valuable data from the boats as we are close to finalising our race sail designs and this will be tha last offshore trip we do before leg 1 starts. All going well we should be in Alicante sometime on the 12th Sep so we look forward to that.
Cheers, Brad -
Leaving Lanzarote (Brad Jackson)
I got up for my shift at 04.00 this morning after a very easy evening, for a change and realized that we had left Lanzarote for good after being there for a year. The Ericsson Racing Team will miss Peurto Calero a great deal, we have been extremely well treated and have had a great base to prepare our two boats for the upcoming Volvo Race.
A lot of us have had our kids in school there and it really has been home so it is a little sad that we say goodbye to the Calero family and the good times that we have had there.
I can't say enough for the hospitality and cooperation that Peurto Calero has given us. Saying that we now move on to the next phase of our campaign and all the team are keen to get on with what we are here for and what we have been training for for the last year.
The International team just got back to Lanzarote on the evening of the 7th Sep and headed off to Alicante on the 8th Sep as we did the Maxi Worlds in Sardinia. This was to work on our inshore sailing and combinations and be together as a crew, we had some great racing and a great time, but time was short getting ready to leave and we missed saying goodbye to a lot of people that we have met in Lanzarote.
The shore crew did a great job preparing our boat while we were away and also the Nordic boat so a big thank you to them and hopefully they can get a couple of days off before we arrive in Alicante.
We are currently sailing along in a light westerly and this should build and head into the northwest later on today so this is different to the normal trade wind conditions that we have encountered most of the time here but we are not complaining as upwind in 20 -25 knots is not a whole lot of fun.
We will use this trip to keep getting valuable data from the boats as we are close to finalising our race sail designs and this will be tha last offshore trip we do before leg 1 starts. All going well we should be in Alicante sometime on the 12th Sep so we look forward to that.
Cheers, Brad -
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September 10, 2008
Joca Signorini, Trimmer/Helm, International crew
After almost 24 hours of trip we've done 200-odd miles. Conditions have been really different to what we had in our last months of training in Lanzarote, when most of the time the wind was blowing 20-25 knots and we were all using full weather gear on deck during the wet sailing.
The wind here is really light about 5-8 knots. We've been alternating between motoring and sailing to keep us in good pace to arrive in Alicante. Everbody is enjoying to be offshore again after our inshore race training during the Maxi Worlds in Sardinia, Italy. The light conditions are perfect for a good night's sleep while it is not so warm.
Looks like on Wednesday we will have some better winds again and we are all looking forward to put some water on deck of Ericsson 4 and some high speed sailing! - http://www.ericssonracingteam.com/
