One of them was probably Carolijn Brouwer because she posted a photo on her Twitter account of them appearing to hold up the Dongfeng Motor Corporation double swallow circular logo on the jib. “Carrying the Dongfeng logo high…” she tweeted.
Carolijn also proudly shared a nice message from her six-year-old son, Kyle, who has been following the race and will be waiting for her at Auckland in a few days time. “I love you and my xbox too, but I love you more,” he wrote.
Carrying the Dongfeng logo high #VOR #eastwind #lovemyteam @Dongfengraceteam pic.twitter.com/BFqQ5BNmtt
— Carolijn Brouwer (@CarolijnBrouwer) February 22, 2018
— Carolijn Brouwer (@CarolijnBrouwer) February 22, 2018
Yesterday the big news was that Dongfeng and MAPFRE had separated after days on each other’s coattails. Today they are more or less back together again, separated, north and south, by just four miles with the Spanish boat ahead in fifth place and Dongfeng in sixth.
They are continuing to head south in light easterly winds but have been losing ground again to the more southerly boats who are now sailing in a more established airflow with Turn the Tide on Plastic still leading.
Mid-way through their 16th day at sea, Dongfeng Race Team were about 150 miles due west of Vanuatu and 250 miles north of the northern tip of New Caledonia, with just under 1,400 miles still to sail to the finish.
Carolijn was filmed standing in the cockpit enjoying a cup of coffee or tea. “I didn’t expect it would be such a delight to leave the Doldrums but it is,” she said. “I’m not a specialist in this area,” she added laughing “definitely (not) – in the Pacific – but I don’t know, I think we’ve got the right wind direction and it’s very clear in the sky. It looks pretty solid out there so I’m not 100% sure, I’m just keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I am right.”
At that time Dongfeng was heading away from MAPFRE to a lateral separation that would build to over 10 miles but which is now back to just over two. “We are finally alone,” added Carolijn. “We have split tacks with the other red boat – the bungee is snapped between us and we are away. It will be interesting. We will stick to our plan for now and see how we go – see if we can catch the others now.”
Video from on board shows the boys on board mostly without T-shirts in the hot and humid summer conditions, northeast of Australia. We see Kevin Escoffier and Daryl Wislang taking turns back on the wheel and Pascal Bidegorry also driving to make a change from studying the computer at the nav station.
There are some shots where MAPFRE is literally only a boatlength from Dongfeng’s transom. If you didn’t know any better you might think the two yachts had just left the dock for an easy sail together to a picnic spot where they were about to drop anchor on a windless afternoon. But appearances can be deceptive…
Latest position report at 0700 UTC:
1. Turn the Tide on Plastic. DTF: 1 321nm
2. Team Sun Hung Kai / Scallywag DTL: 17.8nm
3. Team AkzoNobel DTL : 19.9nm
4. Team Brunel DTL: 22nm
5. MAPFRE. DTL: 71.6nm
6. Dongfeng Race Team. DTL: 75.6nm
7. Vestas 11th Hour Racing, DNS
