haing dead winds for the past 12 hours. Our patience has once again been
tested by the continuous flapping of sails and banging of sheets with
every little wave, as well as the stress of falling behind when so close
once again... Fortunately, our competitors had been in similar
conditions, at least until 6am, and we have maintained our strong 3rd
position.
I now start to believe that we are in a never ending race: we had been
projecting to reach Rio yesterday for the past five consequetive days...
Always greeted cheerfully (!) with unpleasant surprises. We won't be
crossing the line yet for another day, again, it looks like... I have
started to wonder if a city called Rio really exists, whether the world
is really round... Or the end of the race will come by falling off the
edge of the earth after racing for infinite days... Patience.. More
patience...
In the mean time, we had the haredest and most problematic watch ever
(at least so far). As the wind died down to literally no existance, and
our spinnaker started burdening us by drafting into the water or
attempting suicide by wrapping around the forestay, we decided to drop
it down. Easier said then done, as the halyard peeled off to its core,
and jammed at the top of the mast with the new external halyard we tried
to hoist earlier on. It took Jan to climb up the mast and sort it out
in half an hour while banging on the mast like a ping-pong ball attached
to a racket. It was very nasty, definitely stressful. As the wind was
still dead down, we hoisted the Windseeker. This time we did not
complain about it though, as we have ran out of properly working
spinnaker halyards, and rely on a temporary one set from outside of the
mast for a long while. Auch... We are currently half sailing half
drifting merely heading towards the finish line, but not right on
course. But, we are contempt that we're finally moving once again.
Another pearls of wisdom, once again: be contempt, embrace the
conditions...
Only 230 miles to go. Only 5 miles behind 2nd boat, yet 17 miles ahead
of the 4th. We sooo want that podium place...
So much news for the day. Keep an eye on me
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