received 14.12.08 0840 GMT
We started to windward and were fighting for a long time with Puma, Telefónica Blue and Ericsson 4. We actually passed Telefónica last night. We put the throttle down and passed them to windward and then we bore off and sailed down just in front of them. But a lot has happened since.
During the night, the wind suddenly picked up a lot and we were splashing along in 16 knots of boatspeed. The guys below almost fell out of their bunks.
The temperature was perfect and the wind was cooling of our sunburned faces. It had been a very hot and sunny day and it was nice to be on deck in the darkness.
Since the start, the wind has been very up and down in strength and changing direction several times. This morning we had just 50 meters of separation from the Russians. We tacked away and found ourselves on 180 degrees course from each other.
The entire fleet was gathered, we could see everyone. We had almost no wind at all and it was essential to catch the small gusts that were approaching. Unfortunately, we did not do very well. We missed a few chances to make better gains. We feel that we are not very fast in the light and we have to improve, quickly. We haven’t really followed our own strategy and now we have only two boats behind us. We are not happy with that, says Mange Olsson with a frustrated face.
Now the wind is back again and we are bumping a long in 18 to 20 knots of breeze and the same speed aiming to get back in the game.
Gustav Morin - MCM
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