Leg four- Day 1

Everybody is top focused. Grinding 100 percent and working thumbs and nails off with sail changes, helming and trimming, just to get that extra metre ahead.

It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen tomorrow or the day after that. When you are racing, you’re living in the moment, trying to catch every shift and taking care of every opportunity to go faster.

We have started our pounding way upwind to Qingdao. But so far so good. The temperature is still nice, the seas are ok and we still haven’t seen more than 20 knots.

It’s going to get worse. For sure. The question is only how much worse.
Before the race started, everyone was saying that this leg is all about bringing the boat to China in one piece, preferably in ok shape to do the in-port race and then, with short notice, continue on the long leg to Rio.  It will be interesting, yet a bit gut crumbling, to see how hard it will get. I’m sure everyone is at bit worried.

Our new skipper though, the legend Magnus Olsson, doesn’t seem to be that bothered. It’s going to take quite a lot before he tells the crew to step off the throttle.

Our meteorologist, Chris Bedford, actually suggested that maybe we should stop and wait when the really big wind arrives. Magnus thought that sounded like a totally crazy idea.

“If you can still do as little as 3 knots, it will simply mean that you’re going to gain 30 miles in 10 hours, and that is a lot.”

At this moment 30 miles really feels like a lot. It has been close racing from the start and we can still sea all the boats in the fleet, even though we are starting to spread out.

Gustav Morin – MCM