Well… here we are in Rio! Sitting at waters edge drinking beer & Caipirinha’s and musing over the adventure.

26 days of constant sailing, no sight of any land, in a massive massive ocean. Seeing dolphins, turtles, flying fish & whales but not catching any tuna!!

So what thoughts… ?

Firstly, a huge thank you to everybody who supported me, either with donations or their specialist skills. I feel very very privileged to be amongst so many kind and generous people.

Thank you to all those who followed me, 2000 hits on website and 86% voting for me to carry on!

This is what I have observed: Our world is a beautiful and powerful place. Call it what you will; God, Nature, Mother Earth or whatever your household Gods are. We are grains of sand on our planet and that’s the beauty of it, our tiny universe within our planet which in itself is a grain of sand etc… Our successes and challenges are hugely important in our own universes but of no consequence in the bigger picture and that should give us a much better perspective on them.

I leave you with two quotes:

“only those who risk going too far can ever find out how far they can go” – Oscar Wilde

“you rarely regret the things you have done but often regret those you haven’t” – Sir Robin Knox Johnson

So, be brave, be adventurous and enjoy our beautiful planet”

Thank you so much for your love and support …

Ricardo Races to ????

Just 30 miles from Rio but endlessly tacking (zig zagging into the wind) so sometimes heading for Rio then heading away from it.

An amazing 48 hours of sailing with 30 knot winds smashing the boat and then 25 knot winds straight on the head in the final push to Rio.

It’s amazing that after 26 days at sea the frontrunners are all within 25 nMs of each other. That equals less than 0.25% of the total straight line distance, it really is that close !!

We’re currently 3rd but Henri Lloyd behind us have got 7 hours reparation for a diversion they had to make to help another boat in the doldrums who had run out of water, they are currently a little more than 7 hours behind us, so we need to cross the line 7 hours before them or we will loose 3rd place.

The reparation is a controversial issue because they diverted for 7 hours in the doldrums meaning they lost almost no ground because everyone wasn’t moving but the reparation is over the whole race so right now doing 10 knots it’s worth 70 nMs. Not fair but nothing we can do.. !! Watch Henri Lloyd !!!

Life on board difficult, any last remnants of personal hygeine have been abandoned as all we are doing is working the boat and ourselves as hard as possible plus of course the endless pitching and crashing of the boat. Waves breaking over the foredeck etc… We’ve all certainly had our money’s worth over the last few days.

The crew roughly divides into those who absolutely love it and those who look terrified!! No prizes for guessing which camp I fall in!!

Last bit coming up, should be in Rio in 2 1/2 hours, followed by a few cold beers…

Love

R xx

Two days of extreme sailing !! 30 knot winds, head on, rough seas, breakers crashing all over boat… !!

WILL END IN ABOUT 3-4 HOURS, RIGHT DOWN TO THE WIRE AFTER 26 DAYS AT SEA

Well… after 24 days at sea the final end of the race is near.

We have 300 nM to go and are currently doing around 10 nM per hour.

Amazingly after all this time, the front runners are very closely bunched, anybody can win, the problem with the distance positions you see is that they are just straight lines between the boat and Rio, they may, or may not be, sailable in that direction.

Our last tactic was to gybe (OK turn right) further South than the others, this gives us a better straight run, with a better wind angle into Rio. Well, that’s the theory .. time will tell.

ETA finish line is Sunday morning, we are cautiously optimistic but anything can happen. On board, there’s a feeling of confidence, mixed with complete concentration as no one wants to make a mistake at this vital stage.

Thank you so much to everyone who has and is following me I feel amazingly supported and stunned to hear the 50 people had voted for me to carry on before fate intervened and I had to take it off!! Although I have mixed feelings about not continuing, I know it’s the right decision for me.

It’s been an amazing experience which I will write about later and share some of those thoughts with you.

Love

Ricardo

Bit technical this one, just so I can pretend that I’ve learnt something !!!

Currently we’re 622 nM from Rio and the last twists and turns of the race are comimg to the fore.

The winds currently NE and lighter are the last of the trade winds before the Southerlies from the South Atlantic take over. These usually kick in around Capo Frio, the top corner of South America.

So right now we’re pushing hard to get to Capo Frio within 48 hours,by 5th October, some 200 n miles per day. When they do kick in, we’ll be sailing straight into the wind and the only way to do that is to tack ( basically zig zag up wind). The issue with that is that the last 200 nM geographically become 400 nM actually, basically double the distance.

So anybody can still win, although the best chance is with the front three (which includes us). Expect the field to close up as those behind us are still be in good winds whereas we are in lighter.But don’t panic as they will hit the same light winds as us when they get here. The further South we can get before the Southerlies take over is going to decide who is on the podium or not.

God I can’t stand the tension !!!

As ever, thanks so much to everyone who’s following this.

Love Ricardo xx

Well… life at 30 degrees has finally come to an end after 4 days ‘mountaineering’ and we’re now running with the wind with a spinnaker up.

It’s weird because when you sail as close into the wind as you can, you get the actual wind speed in your face plus the speed of the boat going into it, so you get whistling in the rigging, big wind noises and effects etc.

When you are sailing with the wind you are going just as fast but the wind seems a gentle breeze.

Everybody getting pretty tired now, the doldrums were two days longer than ever experienced before and now we all want a beer!!

Jo Jo put up a ‘vote for Ricardo to carry on’ on the site and some 50 people responded, 86% saying ‘yes’ …. well, it’s alright for you lot but you don’t have to do it !!

But a huge thank you to all who voted, I feel amazingly supported.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I’ve decided that I’ll stop at Rio. There’s quite a lot going on at work that I need to get back too, plus the very important face that the ‘ricardoracestorio’ website wouldn’t make sense anymore!!

We’ve just done the Ocean Sprint which means 3 points for the fastest boat between 5 degrees south and 10 degrees south, results to follow but we think we came second fastest (0 points!)

Now onto Rio. we’re currently 3rd but in a slightly better position regarding wind angle than 1 & 2, it’s a big ask but we are closing the gap, lets see 860 miles to go!!

Thanks again for all your support

Ricardo