SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

Hi There,

This afternoon has been a bit of a nail biter - nothing much happening, nice tropical sailing conditions, downwind with the sun shining but I cannot help feeling slightly nervous.

We are set up a little to the east of our guys ahead and whilst we have steadily gaining miles on them over the course of the day, it makes me feel slightly uneasy being closer to the high pressure system than them. It is a case of constantly checking and checking again that you are not about to run out of breeze. Luckily the barometer is not climbing and there are still clouds in the sky which are both good signs. Perhaps I am just being paranoid after our rather unfortunate run through the doldrums… Personally, I’d rather call it cautious. I guess we shall see in half an hour when the position report arrives.

We have been looking for some days now at the run into Cape Town - big breeze, windy downwind conditions, no doubt the media is already speculating as to whether the 24 hour record will fall. Perhaps this is why it is so hard sailing in the light breeze right now. Everyone on board is slowly preparing themselves for big wind and hard work and it makes us all a little on edge while we wait. The boat and rig has now been thoroughly checked over and nothing is being left to chance - all that is left to do is wait until the wind finally arrives, which ironically seems to be the hardest bit of all.

Cheers,

Si Fi.

Simon Fisher – navigator

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 2nd, 2008 at 9:00 am and is filed under Volvo Ocean Race, Ocean Racing, Barcelona World Race. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.