2006

Unai Basurko

Incredible 1º Stage provides much emotion for 2º
 

To the 19:22 Spanish hour of the 2 of January 2006 Unai Basurko crossed the line of goal in Fremantle closing therefore impressive the first stage of the VELUX 5 OCEANS. After 72 days, 7 hours and 22 minutes only with the sea, PAKEA has realized a wonderful passage of navigation that certainly fulfilled the motto of the Maximum Challenge alone.

Basurko, that this Thursday will celebrate its 34 birthdays, was received by its ground equipment and friendly and relative arrived from Bilbao, of where day 22 began the past regata of October of 2006. The young one skipper with its new Open 60 participates for the first time in a circumnavigation alone and is learning continuously new things on its boat, and the crude reality of the competition on the high seas. In spite of the numerous problems that PAKEA has undergone and an unfavorable meteorology, the result that it already places to him in fifth place in the event is an important profit for the Basque hero.

Unai: “It anticipated that regata was thus going to be very hard and very long and has been, and the serious problems that I have had in the boat have done it something worse. Already from the exit, this stage has had many moments of tension: as much the Bay of Biscay, as the exit of Galicia, with very strong winds, has been complicated moments for all. For me the passage by the Cape of Good Hope was quite hard because it could not hold South course with the pilot and I happened very just. I believe that hours later or with wind 20º more South, would not have happened. This regata is a resistance marathon. Until last moment, when you think that no longer it is nothing, arises some difficulty. All the day of Tuesday I have been supporting encalmada with great wave until a cold front has arrived by far wind and waves, but last to 2 I have had miles to do handling them the rudder by hand because I cannot hold South course with the pilot”.

“The physical training and mental has been excellent because I have returned stronger than I left so much physical as psychologically. I must congratulate trainer because that preparation is the one that has helped me has to surpass the moments critics” Unai remembers the moments harder than second stage has lived in this, “One passing the Cape of Good Hope: it had much headwind and problems in the pilot who did not allow me to hold the course that needed. I was on the verge of putting in Cape Town because it did not see another solution me, was to 2 or 3 hours to maintain course to port when the wind was the openhanded to me and it let to me pass: he was something incredible and a very difficult decision: I was about 15 days valuing the pros and the cons to enter or port, being hefted the risks and did not think that with an extra of physical and mental strength it would come out to me well, and thus has been. The other critical moment that I have happened was after doubling the Cape of Good Hope and maintaining course to the South. With the problems of the compass of the pilot it could not rest and I was several days sailing very hard and in the hardest conditions without resting nothing and in the end I began to have hallucinations, confused the reality and the dream, but I realized in time, and I straightened the situation”.
 
It says to have learned very many in this first stage to confront the following one, Fremantle-Norfolk, whose first part, the Austral Pacific, the zone more desolated of the planet, has been knowing “For only 7 or 8 months navegué well in those same waters to take the boat from the Australian shipyard to house, reason why it gives the more confidence me and in addition, from now on, each mile that we do is for returning to house. That psychologically is very important”.
 

Bilbao-Fremantle, a full route of stumbling blocks
Basurko was forced to return 2 times to earth before undertaking its way made the Atlantic. After the exit from Bilbao the 22 of October, the Basque sailor had to return to his port of origin after suffering serious damages in the candles during the wild storm that whipped the Cantabrian. The cyclonal, totally unexpected conditions for the different equipment and the direction from regata, left a sign of destruction in the majority of the fleet of boats. Five days later, PAKEA returned to leave, but it did not take in returning to stop, when Basurko went to Vigo (Galicia) to carry out repairs and to fit the autopilots, thus undergoing other 48 hours of penalty to have had to request attendance to third parties.
 
In spite of these difficulties, Basurko undertook its way behind the leaders and other participants, but it underwent the consequences of less favorable meteorological conditionses. In the South Atlantic, PAKEA began to show problems with the port rudder that affected the speed and effectiveness of the boat. Basurko happened near the Cape of Good Hope, but it decided not to carry out no shutdown to repair the rudder, and continued by the Austral Ocean towards Australia. The strongest winds allowed PAKEA to approach their competitor Graham Dalton more, but in the end this one has arrived at the goal before the Basoue.
 

The fifth place is an important result for Basurko. The first stage of the VELUX 5 OCEANS has offered us very many action and dramatic scenes. Two of the great favorites to gain this regata had to retire; Hugo Boss sank after skipper British Alex Thomson it left the boat in the frozen conditions of the Austral Ocean. After a heroic rescue by its companion in the competition, Mike Golding, the ECOVER also was with the bad luck, breaking the mast in two points, and arrived something lame at the Cape Town, where Golding made the difficult decision from not continuing in this regata that already could once with him in the past.
 
To finish a alone as hard stage as the first of the VELUX 5 OCEANS is a tremendous profit, mainly if we considered the challenges and problems which the participants face. Now Basurko will concentrate in the preparation of its boat PAKEA hardest it second stage, longer than first, that will take to the brave sailors to the moved away zones of the Austral Ocean more, around the Cape Horn and of return to Norfolk (Virginia, EE.UU.). The boats will leave from Fremantle next day 14 of January.
 
Basurko has assumed the role of “local hero” for Bilbao, you take care of that the exit as the final goal of the VELUX welcomes so much 5 OCEANS, and is very conscious of the great marine tradition of Euskadi and, as always it aims, the first man in sailing around the world, Juan Sebastián Elcano, was Basque. In the edition of the VELUX 5 OCEANS celebrated in 1990-91, the emotional connection with navigation alone grew enormously when seeing how another local hero, Jose Luis Ugarte, and the Australian Kanga Birtles, disputed a great race around our planet.