La Promesse NED7576

What a finale! Exciting till the end. We knew that Frida had to gybe once more or crash on Lizard, Land’s End. So we had to be patient….and we did. They gubed, we took a 6 nm lead. And finished only 23 minutes before Frida. New record for 40 foot and under, water ballasted in 5d9h31m13s! 💪💪💪⛵️🏆 We broke the record set by Ronny Nollet in 2003 on ……… La Promesse. Happy! Satisfied! Proud! Tired!

Now at the Solent. We’ll leave the boat in Portsmouth for the Fastnet. Start 21 st of July.

With love from the Solent,

Wouter (Captain) & JanKees (drunk 🙄)

Cheek to cheek. Just in sight of each other. Calling every cargo and tanker that is leaving the channel to alter course. Because we are in a race. The like it and all do alter their course. Except the fisherman. But, hey, they are at work on deck and busy.

Seventy miles to the Lizard. They serve good scones with excellent clotted cream there.

Gonna be a close call or photo finish!?

Wouter (Captain & navigator) & JanKees (Crew following orders)

The neighbors changed their curtains twice in 20 minutes. CodeX down genoa up. And then genoa down CodeX up.
We walk up and down to the foredeck with a huge blue sail-bag. Act like we prepare for a sail change. But we don’t. Cause we miss the correct dress for this party.

Fun! Sun! Blue water sailing!

Wouter ( Captain) & JanKees (HTG)

They’re flying a white Code-something. We are under genoa. Same speed. La Promesse misses her yellow dress…😥☹️

Wouter (Captain) & JanKees (head of sailstorage)

What a miscalculation we made. Thought we could follow rhumbline and keep enough distance from the very little winds. Bit that happened not to be true. Frida on the other end was 35nm north and their investment in a gybe and tack north earlier paid out. We sam them coming and overtake us unless we gybe and sail north as fast as we can and see if we can meet up with them and makenit a matchrace. Consider the 65 nm lead we had earlier in the race. 😡😥☹️🙄😂

It gives a good race and must be fun to watch on the tracker. We managed to cross about 2 miles of Frida. Where we suddenly had to deal with a cargoship at the scene as well. In our imagination, and in the pitchdark, it was a spectatorship watching the race.

Now we are racing cheek to cheek. Flying to the steps of the continental shelf.
We do miss our Code5 which we ruined in the outward leg, in this last part of the race.

Tbc.

Wouter (in the (Captain)s cabin) & JanKees (Baristo)

Many miles and an increased lead overnight. Close reach is favorite!
Less wind now under full main and blue Code0. Gybed in the morning. Gybed back in the afternoon. Sun. Bright sun.

Godfather brought me 3 hours closer to the finish.
Beef stew on the menu.
Orange juice. Fresh apples and oranges for the vitamins.
Haribo (burrrp) for the taste.

Have they found and rescued the submarine? We still don’t know.

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (burned:-(

Like a rocket. 12.09 kts average over last 8 hours. 1 reef and genoa up. Doing 9 10 11 12.5 13.8 14.5 till 16 aan toe. A perfect full ride surf remains exciting!! Leaving a lot of boats behind and chasing the IMOCA as good as we can. Fun!

All ok on board. Too wet to be outside for long. Had a short sundowner in the cockpit with foul gear on in the sunshine. Enjoyed it and went down below soaken wet but with a smile.

If we can keep this wind…

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (dictaphone)

After ten days stop over we were glad to set off for Falmouth in leg2 of the AZAB yesterday. Light winds form sw’ly directions. Bit around an island always a bit more unpredictable. Forecast and routing predict downwind race where one should on or a bit west of the rhumbline. We decided to leave the island around the westpoint. It takes about 17-20 nm to get free from island and windeffects. Whereas the eastern point takes about 30-35nm to get free.
That paid out. We could see part of the fleet struggle their way to the east in very light winds and slow speeds. But around the east is the shortest way to Falmouth. So let’s see where we meet.

Fresh breeze, full main and genoa. Awa 60-80. Average of 12 cog for the last 6 hours. Nice.

We’ll keep you posted.

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (tbd)