Puma | över Nordatlanten
Ken Read och Pumagänget håller på att segla över till Europa inför starten i Alicante. Svår balans mellan att ge båt och besättning en genomkörare samtidigt som man inte vill köra sönder något…
Day two, 27th August 2008
Moving day aboard il mostro
We are always in a dilemma. When practicing, or in this case delivering the boat across the Atlantic Ocean, we have to learn, with the goal being keep making the boat and team faster.
But, at the same time, if we break the boat we will have to limp back to Rhode Island or up to Halifax, or wherever the wind would take a wounded boat in the North Atlantic. That would be bad, real bad. After all, we do not want to miss the start of this race.
Don’t worry, we aren’t broken. Actually, we’re anything but. The boat is handling like a dream out here and the crew is settling into a routine onboard.
What I have ringing in my head though is our illustrious Operations and Shore Team Manager Neil Cox stating one very specific demand about two minutes from pushing us off the dock in Newport in his best Australian tongue, “Mate, whatever you do, don’t break the vessel.”
Well Coxy, it is pretty hard to tame the monster at times. Navigator Andrew Cape got us nicely situated on the back side of a cold front and we just knocked off 254 miles in 12 hours. Not quite record pace but pretty quick none the less. And this is happening all while having “don’t break the vessel” ringing on our ears.
We have had a couple of interesting happenings onboard. Our media guru Rick “Danger” Deppe wanted to label his clothes and gear with his initials – including his headlamp.
Unfortunately for Rick, he put on the headlamp prior to the indelible ink drying and effectively stamped his initials backwards on his forehead. My guess is that those are there for a few days. He looks like the front of an ambulance.
Anyway, all is good here. We’re getting back into the rhythm again, one of being wet and eating lousy food.
Kenny
Day one, 26th August 2008
PUMA Ocean Racing was born in March of 2007. What a year and a half it has been.
And today, it all came together.
This morning at 11:00AM Eastern Standard Time, we set off from Newport, RI., bound for Alicante, Spain. Our team has called this our personal “leg 1” of the Volvo Ocean Race.
We have practiced everything imaginable with this boat and crew for a good part of the year and a half, so why not practice an actual Volvo leg? We had everyone and everything (the boat, the sails, sailors, and families) consider our leaving a race day.
Even our shore team was in the mindset, and they are probably breaking down the shore base back in Newport as I write.
And thank goodness we pulled it off because we would have looked pretty silly to all the press that showed up for our send off.
So now we’ve been offshore for about 5 hours and have heard the 55th version of Jerry Kirby’s story of running “Yankee Girl” up on a small island called No Mans Land off the tip of Martha’s Vineyard. I swear he really thinks he is telling us this story for the first time. And man does he crack himself up…
Anyway, when we come by these parts again in about 8 months time hopefully we will have circumnavigated the world with just 4 short legs to complete the full Volvo Ocean Race. Boston, the only North American stopover in the race is just a short trip around Nantucket and Cape Cod (from where we are right now). Joe Fallon and his team at Fan Pier have promised us a heck of a party when we get there.
So where do we go from here? Only time will tell, but I sure know where we have been.
Tons of work has gone into the campaign from more people I can ever list or thank.
Starting with PUMA, who believed in this race and our team.
We are on our way to the official start of the Volvo Ocean race 2008-2009 in Alicante, to really get things going, but it’s a huge relief to get on our way and begin our personal “leg 1.”
We’ll keep you informed as we go.
Ken Read
Aug 29, 2008 @ 14:29
Vilken bild!!! Blir så avundsjuk….