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Pipped for the podium
Thursday, 22 October 2009
Tom Gruitt and Cape Breton Island finish Leg 1 in fourth place..."So here we are! Cape Breton Island Clipper has finally arrived in Rio de Janeiro! We finished fourth overall at 0505 (Rio time) at the line due south of the headland at Cabo Frio in a fickle breeze with Cork chasing us hard all the way to the line, they only finished about 10 minutes behind us. It was an agonising finish to the race
with us mainly drifting in the tide over the line only making about 2 knots boat speed with sails flogging as we rolled in the swell. We were so pleased to have finished inside the time limit set by the race officials, if we had not finished by 1200 UTC then the positions would have been taken as the nearest to Rio, the satisfaction of actually crossing the line was great! After the finish was a 6 hour motor sail to Rio itself, this was due to light and flukey winds on the approach to Rio, it made sense to finish us on the headland were we could race in a better breeze."On arrival to the Rio de Janiero Yacht Club we had a quick beer before getting on with the menial task of cleaning the boat, all the boards came up, the bilges cleaned, and everything wiped down with antibacterial spray. I have serviced most of the winches on deck yesterday and today, getting rid of all the salt and other matter that end up in the cogs, it needs a good memory to put all the bits back in the correct place, only once did I end up with a bit left over!
"At the moment all the sails are being cleaned, mended and re-flaked with Hyde Sails adjusting all the light weight spinnakers by chopping a good few feet off the bottom, this is due to it catching on the forestay and the pullpit and ripping all the time, rumour has it Team Finland only used their heavy weight spinnaker never hoisting the medium or light.
"Once all the work is done today we are get time to relax and enjoy ourselves out and about in the city until nearer the start of the next leg where more boat preparations begin. I fly home tonight to a very autumnal England, I can't wait!"
posted by Hyde Sails at
19:33
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