Kitesoul Magazine #17 English Edition

52
Sal-Boavista Downwind
My 75 km in the Atlantic Ocean: adrenaline, fatigue and endless joy
just so. However, despite the sea was very
wavy it doesn't really show from the videos
and photos taken during the crossing.
I was waiting for the time when we would have
been in the open sea, with both coastlines far
enough and no longer visible. A beyond-words
emotion. I was holding my GoPro and I recorded
all my feelings in short videos, we then
used to make a video of the whole crossing
posted on Vimeo. Actually, I could not get too
distracted as the waves came from every direction.
Not only that, along the way dolphins
and huge flying fish kept us company! It was
really exciting.
The downwind went smoothly and nobody
had any problems. Some of us, me included,
had taken water and snacks to nibble! The
navigation was slow in order to keep the group
close together and that is why, as far as I'm
concerned, the required level of energy was
below my expectations. That doesn't mean it
was an easy challenge!
The fatigue felt when approaching the finish
line
The arriving point of the race was North of
Boa Vista harbour. The guiding boat stopped
at about 8 km from the arrival point to allow us
athletes to align ourselves: everybody fairly
tired, after more than three hours of sailing off
shore and about 65 km of downwind. At the
starting signal, we put all our efforts straight
to the arrival point, on the beach where there
is the Morabeza restaurant. However in order
to get there, it was necessary to ride as much