Strange sailing conditions

Along with her fellow competitors, Mirabaud is currently sailing in very unusual conditions, and a little slower than planned for this stage of the race.  “We are fetching in very messy seas,” explains Michèle Paret.  “The wind is very erratic and varies from12 to 25 knots.  We can’t change sails constantly so we have to settle on something in the middle and work the sail trim and sailing angle as the wind eases or increases.  On the other hand, the temperature is still relatively comfortable: it’s around 10 degrees inside the boat, the same as the water temperature.  We’re well wrapped up but we’re not yet wearing all our heavy weather gear and at least we’re not suffering from the cold.”
Sailing at around 80 degrees true wind angle, the boat is hammering the waves, sending a considerable amount of water along the decks and into the cockpit.  “It’s pretty tough going,” Michèle confirms.  “The shock of hitting the waves really reverberates through the whole boat and you feel it particularly when you’re on deck; you have to be so careful.  We’re not taking any risks, so we bear away slightly to try and stabilize the boat when we have to carry out a manoeuvre and we make sure we’re strapped on if it’s a complex job.”
Mirabaud is currently lying in sixth position, around 1300 nautical miles from the leader.  They are now into their 34th day of racing and are roughly a third of the way around the world.