Wir segeln unsere eigene Regatta

POSITION: 450 Meilen nördlich des Amazonasdeltas
WINDGESCHWINDIGKEIT: 19,4 Knoten
BOOTSGESCHWINDIGKEIT: 20,8 Knoten
BUGRICHTUNG: 325 Grad
ENTFERNUNG ZUR KARIBIK: 1.000 Meilen

Wenigstens sind wir heute vorbereitet! Der Sonnenaufgang heute Morgen hat CAMPER am Horizont zum Vorschein gebracht und sie wurden natürlich immer größer. Kurz vor Sonnenuntergang kam dann auch noch Telefónica. Hier sind wir also, zu dritt, alle beisammen nach 10 Tagen tollen Wettsegelns. Und so schön es auch ist, vorne zu sein – andere Boote im unmittelbaren Blickfeld zu haben, geht mit einer bestimmten Aufregung einher. Nicht, dass diese Etappe langweilig wäre, doch über eine Woche auf demselben Kurs unter ähnlichen Bedingungen zu segeln, ist eben einfach immer wieder dasselbe. It's fun to have something to disrupt the monotony and it sure helps to pass the time too.

But we haven't felt particularly fast all day so it's back to the chalkboard again, as [explained a few days ago] lining up against competitors can still prove extremely valuable. More than likely our lack of pace stems from something we're not doing, at least not as well as the other two, so this is yet another opportunity to learn and improve.

Our relative sluggishness could also be due to the changing conditions. Every boat has design strengths and weaknesses that favor certain wind speeds, sailing angles, and sea states, and today marked a clear transition from one to another. Finally gone (knock on wood) are the dismal doldrums and the volatile conditions that they can create, and arrived are the first hints of true trade wind sailing and 20-plus knot winds. But Mar Mostro tends to thrive in lighter conditions, particularly upwind like we’ve had, and now we’re moving away from that, maybe towards a windier corner that suits the design of CAMPER or Telefónica a little better.

It's impossible to know for sure though, so all we can do is focus on making our boat go as fast as possible in the building breeze. With our two rivals in sight - even at night we can track their lights - we're more or less back to the starting gates. Knowing that, it would be easy for us to change our strategy to defend against them, but it's important to remember that we're only just over halfway through this leg and we still need to sail our own race, plot our own course. There's still a very long way to go until Miami!

- Amory

Amory Ross

Medien-Crewmitglied

PUMA Ocean Racing, unterstützt durch BERG

"It smells awful down there. Not sure how we crossed the equator without a single daytime rain squall to shower in!" - Jono Swain