On August 25th, after 9 days 06h 58’ 01’’ we crossed the line in 8th place on Leg 2. This gave us an overall placing for the entire race of 7th out 69 boats - a fantastic result and also the top placed rookie.

After the downwind flyer that comprised the first leg, the second leg was a return to the light upwind sailing that has been so typical of this year. It was a long hard slog against the headwinds on the south of the Azores high before we finally reached the Bay of Biscay and finished off the leg with some crazy fast downwind sailing with winds of up to 35 knots.

You can check out the route on the race viewer here.

Finally after a summer of light wind and upwind sailing we havd a race with fast downwind sailing. The first two days of sailing were upwind and spiced up by a breezy cold front which came through giving the fleet 30+ knots. After passing Cape Finisterre we were freed off and were reaching and then running in ideal conditions with 20-25 knots behind us. Rafiki was revelling in the conditions surfing at up to speeds of 18 knots.

Despite falling to 23rd place on the second night after ripping the solent, we steadily worked our way up the fleet and ended up crossing the line in 8th overall out of 69 boats. We have now been promoted to 7th due to the unfortunate penalty given to Adria Mobil for incorrectly rounding a mark on the first day. This gives us our best result of the year in the biggest and most competitive race of the year.

The return leg starts on August 15th (now postponded until August 16th 1300UTC)