Mike Golding starts the long chase

by Coralie Rassinoux on 27 Oct 2006
It is a well rested but somewhat frustrated Mike Golding who put to sea again Thursday afternoon at 14:11hrs GMT from La Coruna, having been forced to stop for 48 hours to effect repairs to the batten system on the mainsail of ECOVER.

The shore team made good use of almost every hour available to get ECOVER back into racing condition.

Mike will be setting off in pursuit of Bernard and Kojiro who are now well down the track. His deficit is likely to increase to start with as he is setting off in relatively light winds.

'It’s going to be a disadvantage to start with and going to be slow before the breeze kicks in, but there is nothing for it. I will just have to press on and get on with it. The breeze should go round from the Southerly we have just now into the north, but Bernard will be downwind and moving on well. But it’s what it is and there is nothing I can do about it now. Alex is the immediate target but the bigger goal is catching Bernard and I just have to be as positive as I can be and hope there are some opportunities down the track a bit.'

'The problem is that the deficit is bigger than 48 hours because of the time it took to be diverted and come in then go out again, and missing out on the depression they left on. The last I looked yesterday Bernard was 270 miles ahead but he will have been smoking away. It’s a bit depressing but that’s the way it is.'