Bulletin: 4th January 2008

Thank you Wellington!

Back racing since Thursday night at 2030 UTC, after a short but intense immersion on shore, Michèle and Dominique are making difficult headway in the light winds.
Still in 3rd position, the duo will have to watch out for Mutua Madrilena, which is likely to head back into the race tomorrow morning. After regaining the solitude following the keel repair, the duo will now be able to duel with the Spanish boat.

“Here we are, just the three of us again, this time bound for the legendary cape, across an immense desert of salt water and waves: the South Pacific.
The stopover in Wellington could have sounded our retirement as we're all too aware. What a relief to learn that this won't be the case. Today we are happy to have been able to get control of the sheets again. TEMENOS II has been well looked with its war wounds! Save for the keel of course, there was no great damage aboard, just a few scratches to be taken care of, which is pretty much par for the course after a half circumnavigation. I was able to scale the mast for some meticulous testing of the rig. Though it’s naturally a bit marked by the miles we’ve covered, the spar is fine.

We couldn’t have wished for a better welcome and mobilisation around the boat in Wellington, but the festive period complicated the deliveries from France in particular. The final package arrived on the morning of our departure and was brought to us in extremis via a rib as we were leaving port!

The stopover was a real pleasure and a great discovery. There were a host of people who came to help us out quite spontaneously, including the young people from the sailing club who spent two days of their holidays coming to our assistance. The mass of people made our departure pretty poignant. We can never thank them enough.

We set off again in around fifteen knots, but with headwinds. We are having to make a series of tacks to extract ourselves from the Cook Straits in which, during a 48 hour period, we temporarily disappeared from the race...

Easing headwinds aren’t exactly a barrel of laughs, and after 12 hours sailing we have covered a mere sixty or so miles, and they're not really in the right direction. We are beginning to keep a look out behind us. Mutua Madrilena may wel have stopped off in Wellington, but our few hundred miles’ lead is melting away rapidly and this is particularly significant given that they are set to head out in downwind conditions with steadier wind than us.

The race is on once again and the obsession about the miles lost or gained is omnipresent once more. The sea teaches us patience. This evening we're stuck making 3 knots and will have to wait a few more long hours before that changes. We are taking turns at the helm every 2 or 3 hours, spending our time constantly on deck in order not to lose any miles. We’re helming, we’re trimming, but the big head swell is not making things very easy and the boat is having difficulty getting into its rhythm.

We’re likely to suffer these light winds for another thirty hours or so, but we'll do our best in the meantime. Our biological rhythm has been a bit disrupted over the past 48 hours and our bodies very quickly readapt to life onshore. We're still amazed at being able to 'sleep through the night', as you'd say for babies, after weeks of broken sleep. However, getting used to chunks of sleep at sea again is a little harder to take, which is why we've opted to do short watches.

I’ll end my message by saying a big thank you to the team from the Southern Ocean Marine yard, the constructor of the boat present in Wellington, to Allan, Matt, Dave, Joss, Scott and everyone that accompanied us and helped us over the past few days. Thanks to them we have been able to set off again in tip top condition.

Michèle, Dominique and TEMENOS II, back in the race ”