| Mike's Blog - on way to Alicante
I have always found two odd day races like the Fastnet or Sydney Hobart are when I get the most exhausted. They aren't long enough for you to really get into the swing of things if you are lucky enough to sail on a high speed boat like a Volvo 70 or Maxi.. So is the same with the two day training sails we so often do, yes great for piling through lots of tests and getting back to make the changes, but with regards to actually getting some meaningful rest and not constantly feeling like you have just been run over by a bus for sure takes a few days.
This trip though we are there, we are just coming up the end of our day three and what will be our fourth night out here and so far all is well.. In true Sanya LAN fashion we have found plenty of breeze. We are currently on our leg of our little course that we have set which has us reaching in 25 knots straight back at the Portuguese coast. J4 jib, storm jib as a staysail and one reef in the main. If you have enough wind it's a deadly combination.
These boats love having little sails on, basically they are low drag for when you really start going fast. People often assume that our top speeds would be with our biggest spinnaker type sail but it's not the case at all.. Puff on with this combo and it's all on ( 29 knots of boat speed just as I finish the sentence). In half an hour we will gybe around our imaginary mark and off out to sea again we go. This time some downwind testing with our littlest Gennaker.. All good fun.
In 36 hours time we will be close to the straits of Gibralter. This will feel like we are entering the "lions Den" being the start zone of the Volvo ocean race.. Exciting times, no longer though are we totally in charge of our own little world, the next month is a frenzy of measurement, media equipment testing and further medical and safety training. All vital stuff of course, but for sure means that our development phase of boat and crew draws to a close.
Thanks for checking in, my typing is slow at the best of times, going downwind in a Volvo boat at 28 knots I can assure you doesn't help it!!! So it's gybe time.
Until tomorrow
Cheers
Mike
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