Sport-heute: Sailing - Zum Carneval nach Rio!

22. Februar 2009, 18:08

Zum Carneval nach Rio!

Nach 7 Tagen Nass und Kälte endlich trockene Kleider

Wir haben nun eine Woch saumässiger Nässe und teilweis kalter Tage hinter uns. Leider hat uns der Wind fast verlassen. Wir warten darauf. Die Konkurrenz hat immer noch Wind. Jetzt haben wir wenigstens Gelegenheit, neue Kleidung anzuziehen.Die Entfernung zum Ziel in Rio zeigt noch 9500 Meilen, also noch fast 30 Tage auf See. Zum dritten Mal auf dieser Regatta, haben wir den Aequator überquert.

VOLVO OCEAN RACE 2009, 22.2.09 (mk) Die Originalberichte von den Yachten

DOLDRUMS COMPRESSION GIVES HOPE TO BACK MARKERS

Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA), pathfinders in this 12,300 nm leg from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro, has arrived in the Doldrums, much to the relief of the Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) who started leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race some 19 hours behind the rest of the fleet and now has a chance to close their deficit.

'The last sched has just come in and Ericsson 4 has finally parked - so, at last, the Doldrums are really there - people were starting not to believe me,' wrote Tom Addis, the navigator onboard the blue boat.

Telefónica Blue still has good breeze and is all set to make up some miles while the pressure holds. 'We normally dread the light breeze that comes with this sort of transition, but, to be honest, we are all looking forward to the change in routine and the opportunities that it presents,' Addis said. The boat is still averaging 16 knots to Ericsson 4 and PUMA's nine.

Meanwhile, in the thick of clouds and light winds, Joca Signorini, the Brazilian trimmer on Ericsson 4, says the last 10 hours or so have been painful. 'We are now trying to keep moving and waiting to see what happens with the others,' he said.

It will be an exciting few days now, as the backmarkers make gains on the leaders who are struggling. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE), currently in third place, reports wind speed of below five knots, so this team too, has arrived at the ITCZ (Inter-tropical Convergence Zone otherwise known as the Doldrums). The Telefónica Blue team reckons they only have a few hours to go before they too, will be fighting with clouds and fickle winds.

The fleet is still picking its way through the Marshall Islands, a group of 29 atolls and five islands. Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) on her course, some 100 nm east of the track of Ericsson 4, will pass closer to the islands than the rest of the fleet.

The islands sound so interesting, according to the digital version of the Pacific Ocean pilot book, which Telefónica Blue has onboard, that Tom Addis thinks he might like to return one day for a more relaxed sailing holiday with his family, although he says, 'If you see me in the street, please remind me not to set out from Qingdao in a Volvo 70.'

With the Doldrums comes rain, often in heavy bursts, which in turn, means clean crews and less smelly boats, as everyone onboard is able to have a tropical shower and a change of clothes. Ken Read, skipper of second-placed PUMA, says he has been in some smelly situations, but the interior of PUMA is rapidly passing them all as a top player in this week's smelliest place on earth.

The monotony of a week of blast-reaching has not even been broken by wildlife to observe. Magnus Olsson (Ericsson 3) is very disappointed about this. No dolphins, no whales and no birds have been sighted, just the odd flying fish. That will all change, once the fleet reaches the Southern Ocean and the home of the Albatross and other sea life. 'The birds down there are just fantastic,' says Olsson, who has a big fascination of the Albatross and its way of sweeping over the surface and diving between the waves without moving its wings.

Magnus will be pleased to learn that a large part of the monies raised from the Virtual Volvo Ocean Race competitors is to be donated to the Save the Albatross campaign in order to help prevent the extinction of these majestic birds.

At 1300 GMT today PUMA is 21 nm behind Ericsson 4, but averaging the same speed. Ericsson 3, however, is putting the pressure on PUMA from just three miles astern and is still averaging just over 11 knots. The gap of over 200 nm for both Telefónica Blue and Green Dragon has now been cut significantly. Telefónica Blue has closed to 170 nm, making a gain of around 90 nm in the last 24 hours, while Green Dragon is still going strong, out to the east, and has cut 77 nm out of Ericsson 4's lead.

Leg Five Day 9: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 9,545 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +21
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +25
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +170
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +196

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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 9 QFB: received 22.02.09 1148 GMT

Hello from E4!

After seven days of wet and fast sailing and with some really cold days, things start to change. Today we arrive at the doldrums and the last eight hours has been really painful with lots of clouds and light winds. We are now trying to keep moving and waiting to see what happens with the others. They still have good winds and are getting close to us again. The only good thing about the clouds was that most of our crew could have a shower today and put on new clothes after an intense week on board.

The distance to the finish shows 9,500 miles to go and we are close to crossing the equator for the third time on the race. Everybody is still trying to not count the days but our pace since the start was really good. It's crazy when you stop and think that we still have close to 30 days to go... But that's what makes this race and this leg very special. Even more for me that we will be arriving at my home town!

Today is the second day of the carnival in Brazil. At some places the fire fighters use the rose to refresh all the people who are dancing and singing at the streets. Yesterday night our deck was like that, but the pressure of the water was hurting some times.

Good winds,

Joca Signorini - trimmer

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ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 9 QFB: received 22.02.09 1119 GMT

So I admit that it has been monotonous and not too exciting here lately. I did not think it could happen in this race, but it has happened, in part due to the monotonous, uncomfortable weather, and part due to our DTL - Distance To Leader - which has been huge on this leg compared with all the other
legs. That again was due to starting later than the others, which was not fun even though it was a great achievement from Ericsson Racing Team, and we are very happy to have closed in a bit on the leaders. But what we really want is to get up there and match race with Ericsson 4 and Puma.
Which, as I write, we are getting really close to do.

It looks like an exciting week coming up, with very uncertain weather. We do have a game plan, but there are still a couple of very different alternatives possible. And it will only get better (or worse) - the area between the South Pacific Convergence Zone, around 10 degrees South, where we will be in a few days, looks very light and variable. This is certainly a part of the leg where we can not write off anyone with some separation.

Wind speed is dropping below five knots now so better get on deck to help hoisting the code zero! Anything can happen now.

Aksel Magdahl -
navigator

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TELEFONICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 9 QFB: received 22.02.09 0734 GMT

Ho hum, more of the same - surprise surprise! Reaching along the line, starting to come into the leaders now as they slow in the ITCZ so it's only another 12 hrs or so of this stuff for us for a bit!

We haven't been able to download any weather data for 36 hours now due to a black spot in the coverage which has been a real frustration for us, but it has been the same for everyone I guess. We are managing to get some satellite images from a separate receiver and these are probably the most useful pieces of information coming into the doldrums, so we aren't running completely blind. We should start to get proper coverage back soon but it's still a hit in the guts every time the 'unable to connect' error message pops up on the computer.

Only one drama to report today, around four hours ago everyone's heads popped up out of their bunks and noses started twitching with the smell of smoke. After 15mins or so of us all crawling around, it ended up being Gabri's (Gabriele Olivo/MCM) computer charging cable in the media desk which had burned out. Not much need for the media desk at the moment with no data access to the outside world so we have a bit of time to fix that and get back up to speed.

Last sched just came in and E4 has finally parked - so at last the doldrums are there - people were starting not to believe me! Time to go and start to make some miles up while we still have the breeze. We normally dread the light breeze that comes with this sort of transition, but to be honest, we are all looking forward to the change in routine and the opportunities that it presents.

Tom Addis - navigator

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Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race Bowman/Pitman Jerry Kirby sets up for a reef en route to Rio De Janeiro on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race

Gustav Morin/Ericsson 3/Volvo Ocean Race Martin Stromberg, sailmaker and trimmer for Ericsson 3, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race