On Board
Bent, Not Broken
Telefonica Blue, after suffering daggerboard damage, pulled out an impressive second place behind Ericsson 4 in this VOR leg. Here’s skipper Bouwe Bekking’s exclusive SA report.
The last couple of miles into the finish, exactly 4 miles to go, so a very short update. The tactics of kissing the India coastline has worked out well. After a huge park up last night, all our efforts were into making miles right into the coast, regardless what the wind direction was, even sometimes that we could sail a direct course, the only thing in our minds was that the coast would pay off in the long run. The latest weather forecast weren’t looking promising for a gradient wind and on the satellite pictures we saw that it was well clear over the main land, and that would mean a weak sea breeze would be likely building during the day. It meant 70 miles short beating up the coast, keeping the rule that a minimum 1 metre of water under the keel before tacking at the coast line, and then max 3 miles out, before tacking back in again. Now the last 25 miles, the breeze has freed, and we are doing 11-12 knots in 7-8 knots of breeze. It has been a stressful 2 weeks, but I am happy with the final result. The next two weeks finally can read again all the SA updates, and read all the remarks from the readers, it will be fun to tread them. I think!
Picture thanks to Dave Kneale/Volvo Ocean Race.
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking
Equipo Telefónica .
