7.12. Grande Finale

Last push. For the last 48 h we have had a conservative strategy in defending our leader position. Too conservative, many of us have been thinking. This was going to be our last day. In the morning we decided to get back to aggressive mode. Despite the certainty of getting squalls, we took up the spinnaker. Karri who had been on the deck during both of the squalls that had shaken our confidence, but had not steered, was full of holy anger and Finnish sisu and swore that he will steer us through whatever would come (this was not an empty testosterone-filled statement, Karri was our best helmsman). Hearing that we had lost the leadership position and were 12 miles behind raised the adrenaline in our blood even higher. We would have 100 miles, 12 hours to catch that 12 miles. We would need to drive 1 knot faster than our competitor. Wind supported our effort and gave us 10-154 m/s and we raged towards St. Lucia at record speeds of constant 10-12 knots. Soon we got the other supporters we had waited for. About a dozen dolphins came and started playing with us. They swam beside us, crossed in front of the boat, then jumped to the air. We cheered them and whistled to them. They stayed with us for more than an hour. The fighting spirit was great, until…

To optimise our VMG (speed towards the finish line), we decided to cut a bit to the wind and make jibes when needed. On one of our jibes, a standard manoeuvre, we made a mistake. The spinnaker boom was not lowered early enough and it cut a hole to the spinnaker… We had almost miraculously saved the spinnaker twice. And now we broke it in a simple basic manoeuvre. There was long silence. Il capitano decided to continue with the broken spinnaker, risking that the hole would be ripped wider and the spinnaker would be completely destroyed. We gathered all the sisu we had and continued pushing hard. After about an hour something happened again. A sudden BANG and in seconds the spinnaker was flying free in front of the fore stay. We managed to get it down and started studying what had happened. Conclusion: the sheet of the spinnaker had snapped. Rope made of spectra, material stronger than steel. The wear of two weeks of almost constant pressure on the sail had done its work. No more spinnaker. Nothing could threaten our victory in sailing time, but the win with handicap was not anymore in our own hands.

Odottavan aika on pitkä. Time goes slowly for the waiting one. Today nobody slept after the sunrise – except Iiro of course. After the sunset at 6 pm the whole crew was on deck. Watching the lights of St. Lucia grow bigger. In silence. For 3,5 hours. Finally after 9 pm we passed the Pigeon Island and turned towards the harbour. At 21.34 we crossed the finish line. 15 days, 12 h and 34 minutes. It was a great moment. We had done it. The whole crew cheered and congratulated each other.

When approaching the dock, we were welcomed by my family: Josefin, Luna and Lucas. A happy reunion. Faithful to the Monomotapa customs we opened a bottle of spumante and celebrated our achievement.

- Hannu