You lose some, and then you win some says Volvo Ocean race skipper

by Knut [Frostad] on 18 Feb 2002 What am I talking about? Miles. Nautical miles, off course. That’s the
only thing that counts in our lives right now. Gaining miles makes the
morning the greatest moment ever. Losing a couple makes it hard. For those
who enjoy a quiet evening in front of the TV back home, watching Jean Yves
[Bernot] and myself in the nav station right now must look pretty weird.
For hours and hours we can sit and just watch the same grip file computer
animated on the LCD screen. Is it going to be more pressure in the west?
Will the lift come earlier in the east, or is this model better? We have
plenty of models to choose from. When a crystal clear satellite picture of
the earth is something of the most beautiful thing you can watch, I guess
it's a sign that we have been out here for a while.

Last night we started paying more than we hoped for when we hiked up to
the east a little, after being equal with ASSA ABLOY, watching them to
leeward. Jean Yves kept track of potential squalls on the radar, the whole
night, and by about ten at night we found our rainsquall. The idea is to
get them behind you, slightly on weather side, and then figure out what
direction they are moving. This one moved north west, and we managed to
ride it for almost five hours, with possibly three to five knots extra
wind. Although we went plenty off course, it paid off. Now we are watching
ASSA ABLOY again on deck, but this time they are to weather. It’s closer
than ever between all the boats in the fleet, and you would have to be
gambling a lot to predict the outcome of this one. If you see what has
happened the last 24 hours and say that equally big changes will happen
the next, then a lot will happen, and we want to be part of that - that's
for sure.

As the results from the winter Olympics are ticking in, and I proudly see
that Norway is second over all, it makes me even more motivated to give
everything we can on the last miles left.

Hold your breath...


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