Skipper Charlie Enright:
Here we are, with three-ish days to go, having already sailed 12,000 miles, past the three Great Capes, and through what seems like every time zone, re-meeting our sun time on the other side of the globe.
We have had highs and lows, seen joy, frustration, courage, and heartache. We’ve been fast. We’ve been broken. Above all, thus far, we’ve been safe. The magnitude of what we’ve done hasn’t yet set in, nor should it have, it’s never over ‘til it’s over! We have 500 miles or so to go, and 2 or 3 potential points on the table.
Everyone and every boat has been pushed to the limit and beyond. We need to get there to Itajaí as fast as possible, for the points, for the physical and mental rest, and, most importantly, to be preparing Mālama for the next leg, into our hometown of Newport, Rhode Island.
Incentives are aligned. We’ve shown resilience, and we’ve continued to find new depths each and every time, and we’ll continue to until the end, lesser teams might have thrown in the towel. I’m proud of our squad, whether we end up with the grittiest points in the history of The Ocean Race, or not, Brazil offers a reset.
With more than half the race to go, close scores, and Mālama back in waters she’s comfortable with, at this point, late in the race, it is when the best teams thrive. The strength of our team, both onboard and shoreside, is the team. We always said we want to be the team sailing the best at the end of the race, not the beginning: now it’s our chance to execute on that. There are chinks in everyone’s armor, there are many miles to go. Let’s light this candle!
Weather update from Si Fi:
It seems like here onboard we have finally seen the back of the windy weather. The conditions up the South American coast have been pretty challenging, but now, with just a few days to go as the remainder of the fleet seemingly limp towards the finish line in Itajaí, the conditions are taking a very different complexion. Onboard temperatures are up having crossed into the warm water currents just over 24 hours ago as we moved off the continental shelf and with the latitude now in the thirties, the sun is beginning to feel stronger.
Despite our best efforts to hang on, the final low pressure is now moving away from us and a decent bubble of high pressure is approaching from behind. Hopefully there will be an opportunity to gybe north on a favorable shift before the light winds of the high-pressure roll over us which will no doubt mean several hours of calm. This, however, will be the opportunity to take on a few last jobs which could help speed our progress to Itajaí.
The high looks reasonably progressive and should roll over us quite quickly and hopefully before too long we will be going upwind towards the South America coast. We have done relatively little upwind sailing so far in this race so it will be something of a novelty at least!
This will then give way to new southerly winds as a trough rolls off the coast and means yet another transition. However with any luck it is these southerlies that will carry us up the coast and across the line. With wind speeds all under 20 knots, it will be quite a change from the last week where we have seen some big winds and powerful squalls. Rest assured though we will be using every puff to get ourselves to Itajaí as quickly as possible however long it takes!
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