Tiesiai iš jachtų - spalio 28, 2014

Šiek tiek pasikeitimų rutinoje. Teko keletą kartų halzuoti. Dėl to reikėjo pernešinėti daiktus iš vieno borto į kitą. Atsirado pasimetę daiktai, teko išsivalyti. Tačiau įdomiausia dar priešaky - kokį kelią pasirinkti ieškant grėsmingųjų Pietų Atlanto vėjų.

A world of digital age, everything is on Google, every answer a keystroke away. There is little left in our world now original. The world has become a huge dumping ground for secondhand information.

If you want something real you must initiate it. This is our authenticity.

An experience, it’s exactly that, an event or a happening experienced first hand by an individual.

The Volvo Ocean Race is an event, it’s one you get to watch unfold as something real. What happens on these boats day to day, what’s sent, what’s written about, what’s photographed, what’s on video is REAL. It’s not a reality show, it’s certainly not scripted, it’s actually a real experience that is viewed by you. Perhaps the success of this event has become so popular with mainstream viewers for this factor.

When you wake at 3am, its dark, really dark, you hear the wind chime its echo through the rigging above you, you feel the walls of your home flex in and out due to the waves, the bunk lurches from side to side and you know that your shift is coming up. That is authentic, that is our reality. This is “the experience” we experience.

Brian Carlin, OBR
Team Vestas Wind
Go to team website 

We’re figuring the boat out a bit, finding a few more knots here and there, making our way back up through the middle of the fleet with sound decision making. It is going to be a critical few days of navigating the high-pressure between Cape Town and us, but we’re psyched to sniff the front of the fleet again and we’re all ready for some fast sailing towards the finish!

Amory Ross, OBR
Team Alvimedica
Go to team website 

We gybed today. Several times. It means that, for the first time in a while, we were on starboard tack. It also means we moved everything we pack on port to the starboard side. That includes the sails on deck, but also all the gear inside the boat. Bags of food, tools, personal bags, spare pieces, parts of our kitchen… When we sail at a reaching angle like we’ve done in the past days, the more things you stack on windward, the fastest you go.

Let’s say we put it all.

So, when you move after almost a week, you find some random stuff that got stuck in a corner or under a box. A sock, a tee shirt… I found a pen, and a camera battery.

On the other side, there is also a layer of dirt and old food crumbs that made the spaces between the bags their home too.

So we cleaned.

Yann Riou, OBR
Dongfeng Race Team
Go to team website 

On board we have a few Southern Ocean veterans, and they’ve been a saving grace for us Southern Ocean newbies.

“I can’t help but laugh,” Sam said. “The girls who haven’t sailed in the Southern Ocean keep asking me all these questions, and I can’t help remember that’s exactly what I did. I was lucky enough to have a very patient navigator—so I’ve been open to answering the questions.”

Sam was 22 when she first sailed in the Southern Ocean; she has since been back once in 2009 for the Vendee Globe, when she spent six weeks down there. Abby sailed the Southern Ocean in her last Volvo Ocean Race in 2001-02, as did Carolijn Brouwer. Liz Wardley last played in the Southern Ocean in 2007 when she was testing a one-design boat for an Around the World Race. Dee Caffari has been down there four times! That must be a good sign then!!!

Corinna Halloran, OBR
Team SCA
Go to team website 

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing continued to punch further south along the western edge of the St. Helena High Pressure, guiding Azzam as a three-way battle for the lead developed with Team Vestas Wind and Team Brunel sailing on either side. Separated by about 150 miles, each boat has placed a bet on which “lane” south will have the strongest breeze.

Nevertheless, all three routes are different variations on the same theme: heading south to catch the westerly winds at 40 degrees south or the “Roaring Forties”.

Home to freezing temperatures, very strong winds, and huge waves that travel uninterrupted around the planet, the last week of Leg 1 will play out in possibly epic conditions.

Matt Knighton, OBR
 
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing
 
Go to team website