Light six knots breeze, calm water, there is no cloud in the sky. December 21st. The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is sailing the Malacca Strait somewhere between Sumatra and Indonesia. Christmas is approaching and as to our Russian cold New Year with its New Year tree, it is simply impossible to imagine it here 250 miles off the equator.
Everywhere around you see a huge amount of ocean water and the sky and the scorching sun, and the white A1, which covers half of the horizon and small fishing boats of Indonesian fishermen in the distance.
Yesterday, December 20th, we were the seventh to cross the scoring gate and entered the Malacca Strait. About 30 miles behind us Delta Lloyd was slowly moving in the direction of the third finish in Singapore. Sumatra’s coastline was dimly seen in the distance to the starboard.
There was good wind in the Strait and we were sailing at a pretty nice pace of 12-15 knots. As usual, the boat was sailing forward, jumping up and down the waves with spray loudly beating against the spray rails. At night, our speed luckily did not slow down, though the sea became quiet and we sailed under Cassiopeia and Southern Cross while the ocean was sparkling with the myriads of strange tropical stars.
As we were moving forward at a good speed yesterday, we planned to reach Singapore on December 22nd. Today our speed is not as good as we had hoped and the finish is expected to be on the 23rd. But, the good news is that we are catching up with the rest of the fleet because the sea is calm and the boats are practically not moving and we pray that our wind should not stop.
Our everyday schedule is as usual: keeping watch, sail changing, going to bed, meals, stacking parties above and below decks, no matter whether the sea is calm or rough. But, neither the stormy sea nor the calm tropical waters can stop us or change our forward movement to the finish. And let luck be WITH US!
Sergey Bogdanov MCM
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