The Ocean Race Europe, I'm finally getting on board too

There's still a day and a half to go before the start of Leg 2 of The Ocean Race Europe, from Portsmouth to Cartagena, with the flyby in Matasinhos/Porto. We've just been informed that the leg will be extended by a little more than 150 miles, so as to, in theory, arrive in Matasinhos in good time for the media segment and the interview portion.

The weather is still a bit uncertain at the moment, with medium to light conditions, especially at the start. Then, as we head a little further south toward Portugal, especially Gibraltar, we're expected to encounter fairly strong winds. After that, well, the finish line, being in the Mediterranean, is always a bit of a question mark. Will Harris will be skippering the next leg, followed by Justine Métro, Luis Berrer, and myself. So, a fairly new crew compared to leg number 1.

The first stage

The team had a great result in the previous leg, having a great battle at the end with Paprec Arkéa, finishing in second place. So we'll try to achieve a similar, if not better, result in the next leg. And obviously, I'm also very happy with the news regarding Bogi (Ambrogio Beccaria), that they've restarted from Kiel, repaired the various damages, and fortunately will be at the start of the next leg. Obviously, his collision with Holcim was a bit of a shock for everyone, and in any case, Bogi is the only Italian-flagged boat in this The Ocean Race Europe, so I wish them all the best. It's always much more enjoyable to battle in a race and be able to have many more boats on the start line, many more vessels to race with, so I'm really very happy that they were able to restart. The same obviously goes for Holcim, which is also arriving in Portsmouth, so, in short, for Leg 2, fortunately, we'll restart with all our boats on the start line, and it will be a very close leg. This leg will see us enter the Mediterranean and will therefore also mark the beginning of this regatta's Mediterranean adventure.

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