First of all congrats to the “kids”, well done by setting a new record, from all us of the movistar sailing team. Currently we are 1.5 miles away from our previous record, it will be nice to set a new personal best. You just Know when you have a good sched or a bad one. If the wind is steady, we Know we are ok, but as soon the wind drops a little , you know that it is most likely that the boats ahead are still in better pressure.

The sailing in breeze is becoming now a routine, putting the fears of
breaking anything a bit more behind me, but it still is there. Like last night, a sickening crushing noise came from our primary winch, which is driving the spinnaker sheet. The carbon fibre drum is cracked and the winch ceased completely. Imagine this winch can lift 4 Volvo cars. We have three identical winches onboard, so most likely as soon the breeze drops we will replace the broken winch by the mainsheet winch, and use a smaller winch to operate the mainsheet.

It took us while this morning to wake up Jono (Jonathan Swain). We had to shake him violently before finally he got the point. “Mate, you must have slept fantastic, since it was nearly impossible to wake you up” His response: “Yes, slept like a baby, but since the boat is shaking so much, how would I know, that you tried to wake me, the shaking feels the same!!”

Bouwe Bekking - Skipper

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