Having changed course last night due to shifts in the breeze, the Spanish team is back notching up miles
“Telefónica” is back notching up miles after a night with a change of course for the yacht to avoid getting stuck in a lull. As Iker Martínez himself confirmed today: “We are now really pushing on, bit by bit and things are going well. We've got back up to pace and little by little we are catching them up and moving forward”.
However last night wasn't straightforward, as the team's MCM Diego Fructuoso pointed out in today's blog from the boat: “We continued to try to gain East, but to do that we had to move further North but a wind shift to the stern meant that we had to fall back and lose the ground we'd covered. Now we are sailing with the spinnaker up and it looks like we are back with a good shift in the breeze. We are all eager for these chaotic days to come to an end and to be able begin gaining South”.
Picking up the pace
The 13:00 UTC position report confirmed that the Spanish crew had begun to log some good data, positioned on the second place of the fleet and as the fastest boat in her pack, because further North American boat “Puma” has really begun to devour miles at average speeds of 18 knots. The Spaniards have stepped on the accelerator and are sailing at 16.5 knots, thanks to southeasterly breeze of between 12 and 16 knots.
In order to get on the highway that will take the the fleet directly to Auckland (New Zealand) the boats must gain as much East as possible to catch the strong breeze coming in from the North. Joca Signorini said: “it's been really tough since we left Taiwan. We're not going towards New Zealand, but we are giving it all we've got. The weather's been really complicated. Yesterday we had a tough day, where we spent most of the time getting less breeze than the rest of the boats, but now it looks like we are catching up with them little by little and there's still a long way to go. Tomorrow will be difficult too, but we'll have to see. It looks like we might have a better routing once we're sailing with the trades”.
The optimism displayed by Iker and Joca is also reflected in Fructuoso's blog from the boat, as he writes: “Everything's ok now and we are going to push as hard as we can, as always. I'm sure that when the whole fleet gets some stable winds the Telefónica 'blue machine' will get up to full steam and will climb positions. We've also got Santa Cape on our side...”
Glancing back
Almost at the one-week mark on this fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race and Iker Martínez has been reflecting on these first few days on course to Auckland (New Zealand): “The start was tricky. We started early having won the initial stage of the leg, but it didn't help much. We started in darkness and soon after we started we were in a lull, everyone was bunched up together and the other competitors got a bit further ahead but all of them fairly bunched together. The first night was tough, the boats spearated up a bit and that's where the first few days of chaos for us began. There were a lot of shifts, a lot of changes and so many unexpected things that we couldn't even get comfortable in the place we wanted to be in at all and we lost a few miles. Not only that but we had a broken bobstay and that also knocked our concentration off focus until we set off and got going again. It cost us a few miles”.
Now, as the latest reports confirm “Telefónica” is recovering although the weather in the Pacific remains unpredictable.
From : Telefonica
Credit : D. Fructuoso/ Team Telefónica/VOR
“Telefónica” is back notching up miles after a night with a change of course for the yacht to avoid getting stuck in a lull. As Iker Martínez himself confirmed today: “We are now really pushing on, bit by bit and things are going well. We've got back up to pace and little by little we are catching them up and moving forward”.
However last night wasn't straightforward, as the team's MCM Diego Fructuoso pointed out in today's blog from the boat: “We continued to try to gain East, but to do that we had to move further North but a wind shift to the stern meant that we had to fall back and lose the ground we'd covered. Now we are sailing with the spinnaker up and it looks like we are back with a good shift in the breeze. We are all eager for these chaotic days to come to an end and to be able begin gaining South”.
Picking up the pace
The 13:00 UTC position report confirmed that the Spanish crew had begun to log some good data, positioned on the second place of the fleet and as the fastest boat in her pack, because further North American boat “Puma” has really begun to devour miles at average speeds of 18 knots. The Spaniards have stepped on the accelerator and are sailing at 16.5 knots, thanks to southeasterly breeze of between 12 and 16 knots.
In order to get on the highway that will take the the fleet directly to Auckland (New Zealand) the boats must gain as much East as possible to catch the strong breeze coming in from the North. Joca Signorini said: “it's been really tough since we left Taiwan. We're not going towards New Zealand, but we are giving it all we've got. The weather's been really complicated. Yesterday we had a tough day, where we spent most of the time getting less breeze than the rest of the boats, but now it looks like we are catching up with them little by little and there's still a long way to go. Tomorrow will be difficult too, but we'll have to see. It looks like we might have a better routing once we're sailing with the trades”.
The optimism displayed by Iker and Joca is also reflected in Fructuoso's blog from the boat, as he writes: “Everything's ok now and we are going to push as hard as we can, as always. I'm sure that when the whole fleet gets some stable winds the Telefónica 'blue machine' will get up to full steam and will climb positions. We've also got Santa Cape on our side...”
Glancing back
Almost at the one-week mark on this fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race and Iker Martínez has been reflecting on these first few days on course to Auckland (New Zealand): “The start was tricky. We started early having won the initial stage of the leg, but it didn't help much. We started in darkness and soon after we started we were in a lull, everyone was bunched up together and the other competitors got a bit further ahead but all of them fairly bunched together. The first night was tough, the boats spearated up a bit and that's where the first few days of chaos for us began. There were a lot of shifts, a lot of changes and so many unexpected things that we couldn't even get comfortable in the place we wanted to be in at all and we lost a few miles. Not only that but we had a broken bobstay and that also knocked our concentration off focus until we set off and got going again. It cost us a few miles”.
Now, as the latest reports confirm “Telefónica” is recovering although the weather in the Pacific remains unpredictable.
From : Telefonica
