Race 2 - Day 28
Skipper Report
13 October

Ben Keitch
Ben Keitch
Team Seattle
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Depending on another windhole or squall, I assume this will be the last blog of our race to Punta del Este, with only 70 nautical miles to go as I write this. Then again, we are doing 3.2 knots currently, so who knows.

The last 24 hours was probably the craziest day of all. Some of the other boats sailed into tropical storm Lorenzo three weeks ago, yesterday we sailed into two nameless squalls. The first carrying 55 knots of wind. Luckily, we had just gotten the Code 3 Spinnaker down 30 seconds before it hit, so we rode it out downwind with the Main all the way out. We were closely match racing WTC Logistics at the time and I hope they got their code down in time as well, although I fear the worst.

For a while I thought that was crazy. Little did I know that not even three hours later, still on my watch, we got hit by another one. This one had 74 knots of wind and we were not quite in time bringing the Yankee 2 on deck, so riding that out for 20 min was "fruity" to say the least. Not something I ever care to repeat!

Since then we have had non-stop rain and the most extreme lightning storm going on around us, with wind varying from 5 to 30 knots from all sorts of directions. I can honestly say that we all just want to be in now and have that long awaited meal, shower and beer (not necessarily in that order).

But despite that, it has been a great trip. I am really happy and proud that I got to sail with Ben and the crew of Seattle for this leg. It has been difficult at times and hard work most of the time, but we had lots of fun and together; we learned a lot. This crew has turned from aspiring sailors to ocean racers that have seen, and bested, some pretty intense situation. They can be proud of that and build on it for the next leg.

That's it for me. Back to the Race Viewer I guess.

Ineke