2023-11-05 19:31:32
Juan Merediz’s ‘Sorolla’ returns to the competition. After three days in Sagres and then in Lagos, near Portimao, since last November 1, Pogo40 seems to have everything in place, a priori. As the Asturian sailor recognizes. “At the moment we have managed to solve the problem of the pilot, from two pilots and two arms we have left it to one, but now we have to go out and test it, see if the work done has really been useful for something and we can continue.”
Merediz has also solved the issue of the main halyard. The Asturian recognized this past Friday that it was not a breakage and that the halyard worked perfectly, but that it was a wrong decision on his part, singing the mea culpa since last October 28, in Marina Coruña, “I put a dyneema cover thinking that it was going to be better with that reinforcement, with that protection, but I was wrong, I didn’t take into account that it was going to skid” explains before heading to the Canary Islands.
The Pogo40, around 8:00 p.m. local time yesterday, Saturday, raised sails and set off, with the aim of gaining ground little by little, verifying that all the repairs have worked and that they allow the Sorolla to continue alive in that dream of go around the world alone.
At 12:30 local time, the Pogo40 Merediz was sailing with a wind of about 13 knots of intensity from the North, which allows it to sail quite comfortably. Since it was launched this past evening the ‘Sorolla’ has traveled nearly 130 miles, and is now in the Moroccan waters of Rabat.
Except for changes, the ‘Sorolla’ continues with the circumnavigation and does so with certain guarantees, although and as Merediz acknowledges: «I have done everything that could be done, all the faults have been repaired, but we must be cautious and above all realistic, if we can continue we will continue, if not… at least we have done everything possible and more to repair and solve the problems, which have been many».
The ‘Aspra’, owned by Italian Alessandro Tosetti, is still in the port of Matosinhos waiting for authorization from the captaincy to be able to leave, given the strong storm that is happening right now on the Portuguese coast, with that front.
Shipyard Brewing, an Open 50 by Ronnie Simpson, sails leading the group of seven that left A Coruña on October 29, off the coast of Dakhla in Western Sahara. The Welsh Bendigedig, for her part, an S&S 34 of Dafydd Hughes at 08:00 UTC her position was Lat/Lon: 42° 29.49 S, 058° 35.23 E being the leading boat in the Global Solo Challenge.
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