UPDATE: “Whoever gets the wind first…” There is a reason - TopicsExpress

UPDATE: “Whoever gets the wind first…” There is a reason why the World Sailing Speed Record Council approved this new transatlantic record course. One of the terms they used to describe the New York to Barcelona was “interesting” and with a lot of “obstacles for the sailors to navigate” -they were right. For the third time in this race, Neutrogena and HUGO BOSS have pulled nearly within sight of each other, yesterday afternoon separated by only one mile in their distances from the finish. When Pepe said his rival would be back, he wasn’t kidding and he and Ryan, now all major repairs from their tumultuous Atlantic crossing complete, have been scampering delicately around HUGO BOSS all day the two are surprisingly focused. The light winds after the straight saw a joint exhale between the co-skippers, both tidying up their personal bags, vacuuming up seawater from all corners of the boat, brushing their teeth and having hot lunches with dessert. All these things have been left aside until then, and now, the path is clear to react, and execute their plans. Coming into the Med, Pepe and Ryan had decided from their experiences to stay clear of the Spanish coast for fear of being blanketed from the breezes by the hills. The weather files have also been confusing to them, all calling for northerly and easterly winds, even though all they have seen have been southerlies. “Nothing is matching,” said Pepe, “one route sends us north, another south. So for now we will go straight.” As HUGO BOSS has stood out to sea, Neutrogena has fallen back in line after a short attempt to head north. Though there is less than 500 miles left in this race, two days or so of sailing after 14, they believe this represents 40 percent of the race. “Whoever gets the wind first, will move forward,” said Pepe. “This will happen three or four times before Barcelona. Whoever is most clever in the last one will win.” Both he and Ryan have raced IMOCA boats into the Med and Barcelona. They both know these vagaries of wind and the stresses of light wind. Pepe is channelling his anxiety into effort as he has done for so many miles. Ryan has been steady, making small repairs, coaxing the boat to almost two times the wind speed in glassy conditions, and generally showing the calm that comes from the thousands of miles he sails each year.