Telefonica Blue Leg 4 Day 2 Qingdao

We had a nice night of sailing, and I am very happy with our speed.  Last night we closed in on the leading boats and stretched away from the others, when all of sudden we slowed down by nearly three knots, while we still had the same wind.

We used the torches to shine on the keel, but couldn't see anything, then we had a look at the daggerboard and a huge piece of plastic was hanging on it. We thought ‘that is going to be easy, we just lift the board up and the plastic will disappear’.  But, while grinding the board up, the plastic got stuck between the board and the hull. We tried everything and only slowing by the boat down completely to zero, we got rid of it, but we lost a lot of distance.  Ericsson 3 passed us and the black boat was right on our stern. So we had a re-start.

I have said it before, but in the hours of darkness, we are always going well, and we quickly we passed Ericsson 3 again and stretched away from our friends on the black boat. All the guys are well and getting back in the routine, all happy faces.

The race committee has added a waypoint for us, which we have to leave to port, meaning sailing closer to land, the problem is that the point is right in a position where there is the biggest wind shadow from the Philippines, so it will slow us down. Not good with a short stopover coming up, and I don't think it will have any effect on the wind speed. We will know by the end of the week as we are in for bit of breeze, 30-40 knots on the nose, but by then we are will be well past the waypoint. It makes this leg less tactical, and most likely the winner will be the team who pushes the hardest through the heavy weather and keeps it in one piece.

Time will tell.

Cheers

Bouwe Bekking - skipper