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Monday, January 26, 2009

Sailing : Volvo : TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FOUR DAY 7 QFB: received 24.01.09 1254 GMT

What a day. We knew this was going to be hard and it's proving to be like that. Since last night, it's impossible to sleep, to eat, nearly to do anything apart of hanging on. Today the wind has been increasing constantly, 30-35-40-45 then, slamming onto a wave, we lost the instruments. We managed to reduce the sail area down to the minimum, storm jib and three reefs.

Puma decided to turn around just before leaving the coast, so we were left alone to go out onto the open sea together with our fellows Telefónica Negro. To be the first one to go into something unknown is never a pleasant thing. We had some discussion about the Puma decision (we assume there is not any damage on their boat) and we all agreed to carry on.

Once we were out, we had a blast of wind for about three hours, but luckily, the sea state wasn’t as bad as we thought and of course, we are very happy about it. We are now slowing down a lot and taking it very easy, trying to take care of our lady. She's been very faithful so far and this is no time for heroism.

Gabriele Olivo - MCM

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