Post Trauma

Telefonica skipper Bouwe Bekking, who will be providing SA
with daily reports during the VOR, checks in with these reports…

July 11 – After the encounter with the boat people
(see Grim, below) 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 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.

The “Telefónica black” had very good pace and we
had to work hard to keep up with them. Due some local knowledge we passed
them, but after that we are all the time in shouting range, so intensive
racing.