Boris Herrmann - Route du Rhum 2018- Day 12

The sun has just dipped under the horizon. The last time during the Route du Rhum for Malizia2- Yacht Club de Monaco. And i am trying something new: the “oneglass” wine. To inspire a few concluding phrases on this Route du Rhum and to cheer on mr Thomson - The greatest British yachtsman. I keep a lot of positives from this race and want to thank our partners, team, friends and supporters. Let’s think back in the start. Everyone did an extraordinary job. I was on Board as a guest almost up till minute 8. Just till after Pierre’s great first-in-history-backflip from an imoca at the Route Du Rhum start. I then only had to adapt speed and trajectory to the “time to burn” on Adrena, our nav software. Martin had chosen the good side of the line and general timing for the approach. It seems as an anecdotical Detail but mentally it makes a great difference to do a good start and as it’s going straight ahead from there for anyone behind it’s quite difficult to overtake. At the cap Frehel mark just about 1 hour into the race I had a first little hickup. My runner deflector lock wouldn’t want to unlock up there inside the mast. I couldn’t consequently unfurl and my mast head zero for the broader wind angle after Frehel. I became hectic. Having rounded the mark third I had to see almost the whole fleet sailing past. I dropped the sail on deck and tried all kinds of tricks to convince the lock. Difficult to keep an outlook in the same time with all the spectators and fishing boats. My team had turned around just a minute too early to help here keep my path free. For a short moment I was running out of ideas and looked around me. There was a motor boat right next to me with Morgan la Graviere and Billy my good kite foiling friends. And Morgan is an Imoca skipper he must have felt the horror. I don’t know how but I tried something new and it worked. I could re hoist the big sail and take off into the first night. I had alerted and stressed a bit myself and the shore team but we got away with it this time.Day one was a shocker. A secondary low to pass and I didn’t pass. I could see the whole fleet in very short radius around me on AIS. And then I see Paul and Vincent speeding away with 15 knots. Yann Sam Isa and me we stay stuck for almost all day. Me the longest I have the feeling. Must have been right in the middle of that damn low. That pretty much decided the race there. My northerly Special Route was result of that different timing now. The routings and ensemble routings were so clear about my route there was no doubt. I was even surprised for Yann and everyone behind. My routings showed us all going west towards the azores. So I ended up in my lonely route no one following. No one motivated for another half week upwind sailing. The zone we had been afraid of with the max wave night and wind has been pretty full on. The wind was from the side. That means there is nowhere to escape. The boat does some scary accelerations and slamming and so on. The commenting on my route has been quite negative at the beginning. Although I had my best day by far exactly there where people thought I would get stuck. Malizia was flying under code zero at 100 degrees true wind angle and flat see. What a royal day that was ! What I was consequently missing was direct contact and fighting with other boats close to me. I also was missing any kind of sea life. I have met zero animals. That is strange and gets me suspicious. On the positive side we had hundreds of school kids following the race and sending me funny questions onto the boat. I don’t want to praise anything before tomorrow lunchtime but u can hear that the general feeling is very positiv. I am thankful the gods let us through. My thoughts are with those that were forced to return to Europe. Especially I feel sorry for Sam Davies. We had been in the trainings together and she was often the fastest. See more of Boris and his adventures check out the website at: www.borisherrmannracing.com or follow us on instagram or facebook at borisherrmannracing. We are still looking for more sponsors so if you are interested you can get in touch with us via the website.