This rescue shows again how difficult it is the recovering of a man overboard on fast boats: it was in daylight on a calm sea and the boat was not going very fast, even so Scallywag crew took 7 minutes to recover the sailor. This was on warm waters, 7 minutes on the high latitudes could have been too much and on those latitudes the sea is rarely flat like it was here.
This poses some safety questions since the man on the water was on a black outfit without any fluorescent strips, no whistle or strobe light attached and much less a personal epirb. Something should change in what regards safety stuff that should be used all times. This does not mean really extra weight since a small strobe light and reflective strips weight almost nothing.
In what regards racing,this leg is the most interesting till now and it has been great. Scallywag's option more to the rhumb line showed to have pay off and even if the option of the ones that took the more Eastern route proved also to be a good one, Scallywag has a bit of advance over those boats (Dongfeng, Vestas and AksoNobel).
I believe that any of them can still win this leg and the finish is going to be great with very strong winds a day ahead. Don't miss this finish, it has been a truly great race and it will be even better at the end.
https://www.volvooceanrace.com/en/tracker.html
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