By Brian Hancock
There is an unspoken, and even unwritten rule among all mariners. When one of us is in trouble, all of us are in trouble. Such was the case when French sailor Stéphane Raguenes aboard the Swan 53 Triana slipped and got a nasty gash in his leg, right behind the knee. OK, so technically he was not rescued by another boat, but he was airlifted off Triana by a dedicated team that feel the same spirit as all mariners. When you push the edges and something happens, dedicated people step in to help. As race founder and organiser Don McIntyre wrote, “BRAVO to all the International Marine Rescue Coordination Centres involved with this challenging and successful operation and rescue”. With their dedication Stéphane is in good medical hands and so the spirit of all sailors continues. And so does Triana.
So, I did notice that two of the leading pack read my piece yesterday. Actually they don’t get any reports on boats because this is a retro-race and back in ’73 (Racing like it’s like ’73) there was no way for them to get my reports and so instead I guess that they picked up the vibe and decided to take the Red Bull Challenge and find the wind funneling between the Canary Islands. Translated 9 made the most of it by sailing between Tenerife and Grand Canaria and continues to lead the IRC class and the Flyer Class. Only Pen Duick VI is matching them boat for boat on the water but Marie Tabarly chose to give the islands a wide berth.
The brilliant all-female crew on Maiden are doing the same, only they have chosen two different islands but at last check they were averaging close to 10 knots and sailing in second place overall. There is quite possibly no feistier crew in this race than the team on Maiden as they push hard for the first to tackle the ITCZ, The Intertropical Convergence Zone, the region that circles the Earth, near the equator, where the trade winds of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres come together. That’s where a mix-up can happen if you are not too careful. The race is about to get interesting.
