Segling och båtliv. - Bouwe leder - trots regn, byar och väldiga vrid

Ingen ro på Brunel med ständiga segelskiften när vinden vrider och ökar, eller tvärtom och trots ösregn.

Som skrivbordssseglare skulle man kunna tro att ekvatorsegling är lätt som en plätt och sol hela dagarna långa. Men ..

Latest from Bouwe Bekking, skipper of Team Brunel 16 februari

What a night! Rain, rain, rain, rain, rain and more rain… Unbelievable! So many million of litres must have come down and of course, the wind goes crazy, sometimes 2 knots, then 30 knots and big wind shifts. Many, many sail changes. The problem is as it is raining so much, you can't see any horizon and it's impossible to judge if the breeze is increasing or dying. So sometimes it is like Russian roulette, you have the big gear on and the wind increases like from 3-11 knots in a matter of seconds: you start questioning is there any more coming, do we need to start to prepare a headsail change? If yes, which sail should we choose? If it is 30 knots then you need a tiny sail, if only 20 again another option is possible.

I think we had the right recipe last night, got caught once with 30 knots where we decided to hang on for our dear lives too long. Luckily we had the small sail in the air, but still it was "expensive" as we had to bear downwind to get the big sail furled.

Communication is another thing in these conditions: as everybody has a hood on to protect their eyes against the "cutting" rain, you can scream as hard as you want but 75 % of the crew will not hear or understand you. Since we have a good system in place when making sail changes, there is hardly any talk necessary. I am driving all of the sail changes so I always have a good overview of how the manoeuvres are going. And even when you "hate " to make a sail change, it always gives a good feeling when everything is going so smoothly.

What a great team we have!

Cheers,
Bouwe