GryphonSolo2: Globe40 Leg 6 finish!
by Joe Harris, GryphonSolo2 30 Jan 2023 14:06 PST
GryphonSolo2 © Martin Gunter / Instituto Fueguino De Tourismo
Just wanted to send out a quick note to say we finished Leg 6 yesterday in Recife, Brazil at about 2 in the afternoon local time. We were greeted by a few RIBs with the Globe40 team and photographers and escorted across the finish line flying our purple (it's actually Lilac) A3 spinnaker in about 10-15k of breeze.
After motoring into the dock and tying up, a band commenced playing festive, local music with dancers in native costumes shaking it pretty good. Roger and I were a bit overwhelmed but enjoyed the show a lot and appreciated the warm local welcome to Brazil.
Recife looks like Miami Beach on steroids. It has high-rise buildings right on the beach for miles. It looks like fun. The boat is at a marina and apartment complex that is under construction so it is a little rough, but the race is headquartered at the local yacht club just upriver and that has nice facilities.
So to clarify our finish, we came in second over the finish line but then an 8-hour penalty was applied because we have changed more than 3 sails. With this penalty, we moved back to third place as Sec Hayai finished about 6.5 hours behind us. It's a bit of a bummer because I think we sailed a very good leg tactically and we also showed great boatspeed in the tight reaching conditions down the home stretch. On balance, we are happy to be on the podium and look forward to racing without the penalty next leg.
We will just be here in Recife for 6 days and then start Leg 7 to Grenada on Sunday, Feb. 5. I look forward to catching up on emails so will try to respond if you sent me a message over the last 3 weeks.
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