Race 4 - Day 5
Crew Diary - Race 4 Day 5
22 November

22 November 0600

The watch started with a glorious morning, bright blue skies, deep blue seas with massive waves, the wind steady around 30 knots and more on a broad reach. The boat was surfing down the waves, going up, and again with exhilarating acceleration going down, always in control and ready to prevent broaches. All day the crew at the helm were trying to set a new speed record: 17, 18 ,19 , 20, 21,22, 23.8 knots... Each new record you could hear screams of joy, and exclamations in all the languages of the crew members.

Around 5.30pm the story changed. In a quick few moments, the skies became grey, the seas became greenish and streaked with white foam, the wind rose abruptly to more than 50 knots and we took another reef to keep control. The size of the waves behind us became even bigger and the boat started literally to fly. Jeronimo on the helm, vang and main sheet ready, nobody was speaking anymore, nor asking the speed, the boat was literally flying. Even the dozens of albatross and other species that were flying around us disappeared. Only one, the biggest, the king of all, was flying in front of us as if he was showing us the way, or maybe he (or she) was just playing with us in speed. This we’ll never know. At some point the sun appeared from the thick cover of clouds, ready to set, and in one moment the sky became yellow. On the other side of the horizon a full rainbow came out. The wind speed recorded up to 66 kts. No fear, but great respect for the immense strength of this uncontaminated nature. And in the end, we all felt as ONE: the boat, the crew, the ocean.