Day 25- Estrella Damm gains a position

by Estrella Damm Sailing Team on 7 Dec 2007 In the last 24 hours determination, perseverance and just good sailing has propelled Estrella Damm past rivals Mutua Madrilena, up the leaderboard, and into seventh overall. Guillermo Altadill and Jonathan McKee managed to push their bright red 'flower-power' Open 60 to their best top speeds so far in the Barcelona World Race averaging a healthy 19 knots over the day, giving them the fastest 30-minute average speed in the nine-boat fleet.

While the leaders sail with slightly more wind than the Altadill-McKee tandem, Estrella Damm has managed to cut down on the number of miles between her and the leaders as the fleet heads towards the Southern Ocean and the first ice gate.

According to two sailors on board the Spanish entry, it has been 24 hours of intense sailing. With dark skies on the horizon and the temperature slowing dropping the team are constantly reminded that the roaring 40's loom ahead as they take it in turns to manually steer and tick jobs off their boat maintenance list. Top of today's list was a halyard change that saw Guillermo go up the mast, a challenging job in normal circumstances made more difficult at 20 knots of speed.

While sailing remains at the front of the Spanish-American team's mind, Jonathan gave an insight as to what else has been spurring him on.

'What a difference a day makes! Yesterday was pretty relaxed, except we had to go up the rig to replace a halyard. That is always a challenging time. Harder for GA, he has to go up there and do the work, I just grind and provide support from on deck. If I count to 150 very slowly he is all the way up, it takes about 5 minutes. We have walkie talkies to communicate. At least there are two of us.

'After we had a proper masthead halyard we changed from the A1 to the A2, our biggest kite at about the same as the playing area of 2 Tennis Courts!!! By now the wind was 15 to 20 knots with squalls up to 27. It got a little lighter at sunset then quickly built again to 15-25 knots. Last night was pretty hard work. You can’t really use the A2 with the Autopilot, except for short periods like tea ceremony, so it was hand steering for 4-5 hours straight. The first hour is the hardest, then you kind of get in the zone and don't have to concentrate as hard. Then the last hour gets hard again because you are getting tired. It was a really dark night, raining most of the time, no moon or stars. That makes it harder too. This morning the breeze is still 20+ knots so we are flying, making south in a big hurry. It seems the tropics are gone now. It is mostly cloudy and starting to get cooler.

'It is funny what you think about when you are out here for a long time. Of course your first concern is taking care of the ship and sailing fast and smart. There are thousands of little details involved in that so it takes a lot of mind-share, even in the best of times. But there are also many times when your mind wanders to more contemplative issues. I think a lot about my life and where I have been and how lucky I am. But mostly I think about other people; Libby, Allegra, Nathaniel, my Mom and brothers and sister and all of my awesome friends. I feel very blessed. It seems strange to have to travel halfway around the world in a carbon sailboat to properly appreciate your friends and loved ones. I guess absence does make the heart grow fonder...

'I want to sincerely thank all the many people who have sent us notes of encouragement. We do get them, even if we don't reply (we can’t reply to them all!!). It really makes us feel part of something bigger to hear from you all. We draw on your energy and use it to power ourselves forward, especially during hard times. So keep those notes coming, we love them!'

The leading boats are expected to reach the ice gate on Friday morning with Estrella Damm estimating to follow through the gate not long after. The formation of an anticyclone off west Africa which is expected to just cross into the area of the ice gate brining high pressure and light winds, complicating things slightly for Estrella Damm.

Day 25 - December 5, 16:00 GMT - Position report with distance to leader
1. PRB - Vincent Riou / Sebastien Josse - 0.0
2. Paprec-Virbac 2 - Jean Pierre Dick / Damian Foxall - 34
3. Veolia Environnement - Roland Jourdain / Jean Luc Nelias - 178
4. Hugo Boss - Alex Thomson / Andrew Cape - 258
5. Delta Dore - Jérémie Beyou / Sidney Gavignet - 318
6. Temenos 2 - Dominique Wavre / Michele Paret- 506
7. Mutua Madrilena - Javier Sanso / Pachi Rivero - 807
8. Estrella Damm - Guillermo Altadill / Jonathan Mckee - 813
9. Educacion Sin Fronteras - Servane Escoffier / Albert Bargues - 1270