Message from Conrad Colman - Mail Boxes ETC : Jour 11
“I have been on a bit of a tear recently which has been great because I managed to avoid breaking anything on the boat. Coming out of the tail of the third big depression and it has been great. I do feel my understanding of the boat has got better through the three systems, I was very, very conservative with the sailplan and sort of maintained my speed relative to the others and nothing more. The second one I increased the sail area a little and saw I could maintain quite good speeds. And then on the third one, I let rip. And in full hang on to your hat mode unfurled the sails and went for it. And it is pretty terrifying to be honest. The noises that this boat makes when this boat is doing 27kts down the face of a wave should not be repeated in polite company. And I feel like I am hanging on for dear life hoping it is all going to arrive at the bottom of the wave in one piece. But you know it is a great opportunity to learn for me, just a couple of hundred miles from the finish line and you know it is an opportunity for me to push the boat in relative safety and there are no big consequences. Other than losing the mast…the sails are already really old and tired, and I have sails up just now from 2016, from three campaigns ago, and so this is a fantastic learning opportunity. And I am learning the boat goes really fast. I seem to have overtaken some foilers. I have learned it is extremely uncomfortable on the boat because we don’t have the benefit of foils to soften the blows and so the boat ricochets off every wave. I get thrown round the boat but it seems quite efficient. I am currently approaching Cape Finisterre in what is this nice little acceleration zone, this jet of air that is channelled by the high cliffs of La Coruna. I need to be a bit conservative here because it might be quite strong, but I plan to ride that jet into Biscay and all the way home.”