Race 11 - Day 24
Skipper Report
23 May

Each of these Mandatory Finish Gates is bringing a new challenge to the party, the passage from Gate 3 - Gate 4 is absolutely no exception.

After our nail biting finish with WTC Logistics and Punta del Este at the last gate we tacked fully synchronised for 36 hours, creating some beautiful AIS tracks on our plotter, before each vessel then chose their moment to tack in towards Gate 4. Punta del Este going first, WTC Logistics second and we chose to extend out to the north-east in hopes of a wind shift in our favour near the coast. This we found by sailing straight into a squall, dark clouds on the horizon followed by a 60 degree windshift followed by a tack and some great boat speed in the right direction (finally).

Then came lightning and rain of biblical proportions, so we turned the instruments off for a short while as the lightning was right on top of us, to ensure we didn't fry the entire electrical system on the boat. When they came back on, 10nm closer to the finish; what a success. The dark has had us watch dolphins streak towards the boat like torpedoes as the bioluminescence lights up their trails, and we have seen many turtles float by.

We spent the early afternoon hunting for some more squalls to get caught in, so the skipper could have a wash, and to help with our boat speed. Evening time and we found ourselves wind holed 16.5nm from the finish with our classic sparring partners WTC Logistics and Punta del Este all too close again, ready to jump on any breeze to give us that final kick to the line.

Only time will tell with this finish who comes out on top, good luck to all (but not that much luck).

Max, a clean Wavy and the wind holed crew of GoToBermuda