What a final! We had to decide if we’d take the west side or the east side of the island. And we needed a plan to beat Frida who had sailed almost the entire race about eight to ten miles ahead of us but which we had already caught up with.
For the western corner we had to sail very close to the wind which is not what La Promesse is good at. So it looked like we had to make some tacks to come around.
Another thing we had to consider was the wind that would decrease from noo and finally dissapear in late afternoon and evening. Very light winds around an island with higher mountains at every corner. Challenging.
Although the western end seemed more logical in an airflow from the west we decided different. Actually Wouter did. The plan was to sail at a better angle and thus much faster to the east side to be there in time to start the 25 nm upwind final leg to Ponta Delgada.
The winds would decrease more and earlier in the west than in the east during the day. And in very light winds 10 kts and less we better have them on the nose than from the back. And so we did.
It remained exciting till the finish. First of all to get there ourselves. Slower, slower, slowest. And besides that we had not expected the wind to die almost completely at the west end so soon. We expected Frida at the horizon every moment.
But we managed and were welcomed by the committee and a couple of kayaks or canoes. Very warm welcome. 2nd boat in. 1st in class! We beat the imoca on irc handicap. Nice!

Cold beers. Decent food and a good sleep!

Looking forward to the start for the return leg at june 20th.

With love from the island of Sao Miguel,

Wouter (captain) & JanKees (housekeeper)