Leaving Lisbon

Azzam is now leaving Lisbon and on the way to Cape Town, all be it by ship. The Volvo Ocean Race is a test of endurance and in the build up to the race, the team have done very little racing. That is just how it is. So it is even more frustrating when we finally get to go racing and get a set back like this.

But the mood in the team is still up beat and personally I have been taking my frustration out in the gym! All of the Abu Dhabi Racing Team is determined to get back on track and can't wait for the next leg to Abu Dhabi, we didn't really need any more motivation but we ceratinly have it now.

What has been interesting is to see how the other teams have been performing in this leg, as the leg to Cape Town has a variety of sailing angles and wind speeds, it has been painful to watch and not participate but it has been very educational.

best,

Robert

Gutted

Well, we are back in Alicante.

It was a rough night big seas plenty of wind, probably more than we have had in training but the Fastnet and the delivery to Alicante were both rough, so this has come as a huge surprise.

The rig snapped coming off a big wave, something must have given but as yet we don't know the reasons.

The replacement rig arrived in Alicante and it is going to be full on for the team for the next few days.

Credit to the sailing crew especially Wade Morgan who went in the water to save the main sail.

We are going to step the rig and get it fully tuned, that is priority but our overall plans are not full decided. We are just concentrating on putting the boat back together.

Rob

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing Yacht with Broken Mast

Video of the mast being recovered.

Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing Yacht with Broken Mast

Blowing hard

Packed up the gear yesterday and watched as the front came through the race village bringing torrential rain, which gave everybody a good soaking.

However this morning, is race day and the breeze is kicking in and we have clear blue skies, so it should be a really bright fast start out of Alicante for the first leg.

It could be westerly or northwesterly to start with 20 knots of wind and flat water and we should get a rapid start down the coast with a beam reach we should be absolutely flying but as we turn the south east corner of Spain it will be on the nose and windy, may be 30-40 knots. It is 180 miles to the corner and we should get there very quickly but it looks like a very rough first night, potentially boat breaking stuff, it will be blowing hard on the nose so we will be taking it a bit easier. However we could make Gibraltar 24 hours after the start, which is a fast run out of the Med, especially as 200 miles of it will be on the wind.

You don’t want to be delayed getting out of the Gibraltar but it is looking complicated in the Atlantic at the moment, we are hoping that the weather picture for the Atlantic Trade Winds will sort out over the next day or so and we will ‘get on our bike’ so to speak.

We haven’t looked at the weather much further but it looks like 18-20 days before we will be in Cape Town.

All the best,

Rob