04 July
“After just two days of racing a lot has happened. The light conditions at the start couldn’t have been more different to the wild surf rides we have had since early this morning.
“I have just handed the helm over to Corentin and come below after a wet and very adrenaline packed last few hours on deck, rounding the NW corner of Spain and now heading out into the Atlantic. We have been surfing downwind in F7 and pleased to report we have just notched Imerys’ fastest speed to date… 24.95 knots! Incidentally Corentin appeared just after and asked me to slow the boat down so he could sleep..!
“Almost immediately, just a few metres from the boat I saw the large fin of a whale pass by, and we’ve had some great speed testing with dolphins that joined us for a sprint!
“The strong winds are just starting to ease off a bit, although Corentin is still sailing at 15-17 knots, and the motion through the waves is still quite violent. We’re in great race mode and life on board has been very busy that we haven’t yet made time for some delicious porridge this morning.
“All in all, we are racing hard and are very happy to have consolidated our lead this morning, after a tough first night where we ran out of wind and lost a lot of places. This was made more challenging when we weren’t able to connect to the internet to download fresh weather files, so instead we had to sail by instinct! Pleased to report though that comms are back up and running, which will help us in avoiding a small low pressure system travelling NW from Spain. Tales is taking a similar route to us, and will no doubt be snapping at our heels for a bit, whilst Stella Nova has headed closer to the low pressure so it will be interesting to see if they get swallowed up by light winds…”
