ABN Amro One stretches 24hr mark even further

by Mike Sanderson, ABN Amro One on 28 Nov 2005 From: ABN AMRO ONE LEG ONE DAY 16
Sent: 27 November 2005

How cool is that!!! 541 Nautical miles (NOTE: this distance is still increasing) in 24 hrs, and there is still a chance that it could sneak up even a bit higher.

It has been all go here on the mighty ABN AMRO ONE, as I said to you yesterday it took us a little while to get the boat set up exactly right, in fact from the outside it must have looked more like sail changing practise rather then racing, as in the period of about four hours we had all four downwind sails up.

But then once both us and the breeze settled it has just been all go ever since. We are nicely settled on our fractional Gennaker, and are just adjusting, with reefs going in and out of the mainsail and the staysail going up and down. To be honest, we hadn't even been thinking about the 24 hr record until about six hours before it happened, we then realised that maybe it was on as the breeze was due to stay in..

Anyway, all in all, an amazing feeling, we have had some tough times on board in the last few weeks, breaking the boat on the first night, a fire on day 2 and then having to watch a more then 150 mile lead disappear, but this for sure is an amazing highlight....

I can't say enough good things about the guys and the boat, very cool. Anyway, lets see where it ends up, it is a nice little bonus , but still the main objective is still 1623 miles away and that is cape Town South Africa, we need to look after the gear, look after the guys, and try and get this thing there first.

It has to be said that an amazing performance has been put on by the Young guys on ABN AMRO TWO, they are just flying, I did try and warn a few people about the White Rocket when we were in Spain, and I knew for sure it was falling on deaf ears, That for sure will have changed.. good on you guys.

Have to stop writing, it's getting too bouncy.

Until Tomorrow
Cheers

Mike (Mike Sanderson - Skipper)
Stan Brad, Mark, Rob, Tony, Sidney, Justin, Jan, Dave and Betty