Date: Friday 7th December
Position: 9th, 260 miles behind the race leader
Hello everyone
The last couple of days have been the toughest of the race for me. Not
physically, because the conditions are stable and there is relatively little
to do, but mentally it has been hard to see my rivals catching me from
behind.
A bit of bad luck, coupled with some very small errors on my behalf, and I
watched my lead being eaten up by Cervin, Maisonneuve and Akena. All the
good work since the start going to waste!
Luckily, i found myself sailing next to Yannik on Cervin, and it made me
think back in the history of our two boats, who have a lot of stories
together I believe, and I guess that Roxy (ex-PRB) was happy to be alongside
Cervin (ex-Aquitaine Innovations) and re-live the memories of their fierce
competition in 2000!
Just as the two boats were reminiscing together, I was happy to use Yannik
and his boatspeed skills to try and get Roxy going as fast as Cervin! The
sight of another boat out here in the middle of the ocean is great
motivation to push hard and try to get in front.
A day of tweaking, trimming, tuning pilots, ballast, sails.... and I managed
to just about hang on to Cervin. But hats' off to Yannik as he really is
sending it! As Jeanne said, it is like the athletes who run with a pacemaker
to ensure a record time, our two boats have been faster for the last 24
hours than our closest rivals. The trouble is, that now I have changed
course to head up a little towards the finish, I am going to pass behind
Yannik. SO there is work to be done yet! Luckily there are still just over
2000 miles to do it in!
Sam Davies
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