Wednesday 25 February 2009

VOR: TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 11: received 24.02.09 1421 GMT

by Bouwe Bekking

Back in the real world of technology, Gabry (Gabriele Olivo MCM) has fixed his electrical issues, so he can work again on all his clippings and shots. The Fleet 33 is providing data again and it looks like in any minute the broadband connection will become operational again. There will become a bit pressure onto Gabry to send of as much as possible footage, as the weekly TV programme has to be put together at the other end. He is keen as mustard to get more and better footage of than all the other teams. One thing is he likes us to win on the water, but on top on that he wants to be the best media person.

The last 24 hours have been very comfortable, no water over the decks and reaching with our big code zero up. Again the boats ahead of us had a better (wider) wind angle than us, but amazingly, we have still been able to close in on them, which can mean only one thing: we are fast.

All the improvements we have made are paying off. All the good work from the sail designers and our shore team sail makers, who have squeezed the extra horse power we were looking for out of our sails, the ‘engine’ of our boat. Not too forget all the jobs the boat builders have done for us, which are maybe not always directly visible from the outside, but which definitely help us to go faster. I don't want to cut any of our other shore departments short, they all fantastic in their jobs and contribute what we are: A GREAT TEAM!!!

Volvo Ocean Race

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