04.03.2006
From: MOVISTAR QFB LEG FOUR DAY 14
Sent: 04 March 2006 00:59
13 miles to go Ushuaia.
The sail in to the Beagle Channel would have been way more enjoyable if we weren't still in a race. It must have been the only day of the year that there was a blue sky. Of course the wind was coming right on the nose with puffs up to 40 knots in the beginning of the canal, then they eased of to a steady 25knots.
Most of the day we have been using our #4 jib, and the main remained down.
We can't sail faster than 10 knots, because in case we hit a wave (and
there are plenty) the pressure gets to high on the repair we did, and
water starts coming in again. Another issue is that the connection from
the rams to the keel head is sealed by rubber manchets, and of course the
water is trying to come through there as well. Luckily we had extra
manchets with us, so these were installed as an extra safety margin to
prevent water coming into that way. I am very happy that we spent some
extra kilos in this area, and would like to invite the other competitors
to at least have a look at our design, as this worked well even under the
tremendous water pressure.
Stu Bannatyne is coming here for the 2nd time in his life, (dismasted with
Silk Cut), again with mixed feelings.
We all know that we are still in contention for 2nd and 3rd place overall
and that is our goal and we will work hard for this. We know we can
bounce back and have shown this again on this leg. As far as I know we had
the best 24 hour run of the fleet, 549.7 miles in 24 hours, and this would
have gone even more up if we hadn't broken down.
We will try to lift the boat out tonight, and have a look at the extent of
the damage, and start from there on. The Spanish America’s Cup team has
assisted us again with some of their boatbuilding staff led by Javier
Mendez, a big thanks to all of you to be here in record time. As well a
thank you to the two locals, Roxana Diaz and Jonothan Selby, who have
arranged everything.
And a big thanks to crew off the Chilean navy vessel, who have escorted us
all the way without us requiring this. And the final thanks to the
Argentinean navy vessel that joined us halfway down the channel.
Not sure if I will manage to report in tomorrow, but will do my best to
keep everybody updated of the progress of movistar
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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