Sport-heute: Sailing - Riesige Wellen knallen an unser Boot

11. März 2009, 13:30

Riesige Wellen knallen an unser Boot

Es ist praktisch Windstill, aber riesige Wellen knallen im 5 Sekunden Takt an unser Boot und schütteln es jedesmal durcheinander. Wir sind machtlos, kommen kaum vom Fleck und können uns nicht wehren. Mit 30 Knoten kommen sie daher und nehmen uns mit wie eine Streichholzschachtel. Fürchterlich.

Volvo Ocean Race 11.3.09 (mk) Die Originalmails der Yachten

ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 21 QFB: received 06.03.09 0551 GMT

Actually we have already been in a storm. Well, not storm, but at least constantly in 30 knots for hours and hours. But the wind is not the problem. It is the wave state.

We have now reached the centre of the low pressure and the wind has stopped blowing. We have tacked to get out of here and are now bumping around in a nasty sea state, waiting for the 30 knots to come back. We are pretty fed up with sailing upwind or bumpy reaching. It is a pain with the way the boat is moving and the constant spray.

‘I am fed up with this fire hosing’, Mange Olsson was yelling when he came down in the darkness from last watch. ‘It's not fun to sail these boats any more. Why can't we have shields like on the Open 60s? How fun is it to stand in a constant fire hose for four hours three times a day? You get exhausted!’

But the bumping is worse. Things are breaking.

We have a major with our diesel tanks and for Arve Roaas and Martin Stromberg and me; the bunks are also starting to become an issue. Yesterday Arve fell down from the port one. He is staying in the one most forward and on the ‘Second floor’. It's a tricky fix, so it ended up with me sleeping on my beanbag.

Tonight we had the same problem, but on the starboard side. Before I went to sleep on the ‘first floor’, I thought about the risks. The pipes on Arve’s bunk was bending badly in the waves, but I thought that they would just keep bending and not break since it's aluminium. More worrying was the noise from the attachment in the roof. I tried to fit in under it just so the pipes were not going to hit me anywhere sensitive.

When I finally fell asleep, after getting use to jumping up and down in the bunk from the slamming, I still had a bad feeling.

A couple of hours later I woke up from a snapping noise and from being totally squeezed. The attachment in the roof snapped in a big wave. But I got away just fine, no bones broken. But now it seems like we have to do some bunk sharing. Or I sleep on my beanbag.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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GREEN DRAGON LEG FIVE DAY 25 QFB: received 11.03.09 2154 GMT

It’s 2.30am local time and I am just boiling some water for hot drinks.

'Ian is the radar on? We can see some objects in the water?' These were the exact words of Animal (Andrew Mclean) being a typically understated Kiwi – anybody else would have run down the hatch shouting 'iceberg 2 o'clock' or something else out of the Titanic.

True enough the 'objects' really were icebergs and it was a sharp reminder to us that at 50 degrees south there is a real danger from these small breakaway icebergs or 'growlers'. I say small loosely, as the three that we saw in rapid succession (two to windward and one to leeward) were each between 100 metres across and the size of a football pitch as best we could tell in the dark about a half a mile away.

I was pleased to see that they shone reasonably brightly even at 2 o'clock in the morning in the ambient light. It was a nervous night from then on, with every white breaking wave off the bow tricking you into believing there could be small lumps of ice ahead. I noticed this morning that a few more people are now wearing survival suits and we have made a point of closing all the water-tight doors.

Daylight came as a bit of a relief and we have now gybed north towards the ice gate that is supposed to keep us away from any such ice. Whilst I would love to see an iceberg in the daylight I will be more than happy to not see any more ice this race.

Ian Walker - skipper

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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 26 QFB: received 11.03.09 0846 GMT

Had great fun today – we were running with the code 4 spinnaker on and surfing at some pretty good speeds with water pouring all over the place. The problem with these boats is that even the mid 20s seem a little pedestrian.

In my mind the sun was out, but, in reality it was grey and overcast all day – not sure when the sunnies will get used again. At times up on the bow, as we surfed along, you could look down below and I think that from the deck to the water below was around 4m. Amazing considering that just a few metres behind you was the breaking part of the wave.

It was certainly better than recently. I have been having some major league issues with my video cameras of late and at one point it was all doom and gloom with all of my three options seemingly not in operation.

It was definitely the low point for me of this leg. At the time it was hard to see why, as I had taken such care of the cameras, but in retrospect the pounding and the moisture just took its toll.. Luckily, with the aid of all ashore, I have managed to bring one camera back to life and I still have hope for another.

When all were down it brought back a haunting memory which has plagued me for some time and is part of the reason I’m back here, memories from the 2001 –02 race onboard Tyco.

Back then we had days of dodging ice bergs and this made for spectacular footage. We had snow settling on the deck and on the spinnaker pole and the usual big waves were washing along the decks and I was usually body surfing within them with my camera rolling.

On one occasion I had straddled the primary winch when we went into submarine mode and the boat went under a big wave, and, as the tons of water went over the yacht, they picked me and the camera up and dumped us a few metres down the yacht at the base of the steering pedestal. The helmsman had also been washed off the wheel in the surge.

As I surfaced, the boat was full of water - which is rare for open-transomed yacht. I lifted my hand to see if the camera was still recording – it was gone! Except for the handle and my adapted wrist safety band with all the parts of the water proof housing still attached.

I shouted – ‘camera’s gone’ to all around..

The boys who were stood by the transom looked in the knee-deep water as it flooded off the yacht for the camera. It was gone and I was absolutely gutted.

I still remember it was recording as the wave hit, the tape was at 48 mins –all of which was quality stuff – all gone.

I hope the images of the boat sailing off in the distance were recorded as we left it and that one-day the camera is washed up somewhere.

The feeling of losing so much film still hurts to this day but not as much as not getting the chance whilst down here would have done.

So thanks to all who have helped.

Cheers Livewire and Ericsson media team.

Guy Salter - MCM

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 26 QFB: received 11.03.09 0615 GMT

Hi There,

Sadly it has been another slow day for us on Telefónica Blue and things seem to be set to stay that way, as a ridge of high pressure is extending out in front of us putting up a wall between us and the leaders.

Even with all the optimism in the world it is starting to get a little frustrating now, watching the leader extending to over 700 miles ahead. Each day we hear ‘only eight days to the Horn’, but in almost a week this number hasn't come down at all! It is almost like we are running on a treadmill and not getting any closer.

Still we are keeping ourselves entertained out here. Today was Mike's (Michael Pammenter/RSA) 26th birthday which gave rise to some entertainment. His black boat compatriot David (David Vera/ESP) gave him a very thoughtful present - a dried seafood necklace!

Much laughter was had as Mike hates seafood, although this is clearly not the case with David. As soon as it was hung round Mikey's neck long enough for the smell of fish to linger, it was ripped off again and he devoured it! Luckily for Mike though, Gabri (Gabriele Olivo MCM) came through with some Gummy Bears, which were much more appealing than the dry fish! What we have all been left wondering though is how David has managed to keep the seafood in his bag for 25 days without making everything else smell too!!

Cheers, for now,

Simon Fisher - helmsman

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PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 26 QFB: received 11.03.09 0908 GMT

What a difference a day makes.

Constant losses to the two guys in front as they sailed away in more pressure made the mood on PUMA's IL Mostro frustrated to say the least.

Well, give a group of sailors a few winning position reports in a row and the mood changes quickly. It appears to be our turn for at least a short time, to reel in some miles as the two leaders begin to sail in some lighter winds. We have a few nice sail combinations in these conditions and we are blazing off the miles. Feels good to be heading straight at the mark at an average of about 22 knots. And back to winning scheds!

We also had a bit of a milestone today. Capey (Andrew Cape – navigator) brought out the paper chart for Cape Horn! Big move, seeing it is still over 2000 miles away. Anyway, it is our next landmark and as is his custom, he has the old school paper chart on the nav station desk just in case it is needed. It is a phenomenal place on paper anyway. Tons of islands on the Chile and Argentinean coasts. Look forward to seeing it, and having it in the rear view mirror. Until then we should have some nice sailing to the ice point then a day or so on the breeze to get to a front that should quickly sweep us to the Horn. Sounds good now, but there are a million weather variations that could happen between here and there.

On board all is simply damp. A huge amount of condensation below. All of our clothes are wet, the interior is wet, and the bunks are wet. Fortunately our friends at PUMA supplied us with the layering system that keeps us warm in these horribly damp conditions. And really nice dry bags that keep unused clothing dry. Man does that feel good to peel off a damp layer and put on a nice fresh dry one. Not many of those left though. But the fact is our world is just down-right soaked. And it doesn't look like much of a dry cycle coming in the near future. But power reaching has its advantages, like knowing that you are high-balling towards the mark. And as I look up on the nav screen, we are literally pointing straight at the mark which is 374 miles away.

Physically we are all commenting how skinny each other looks and it is interesting how you can especially feel your legs getting weaker being in such a confined space for days and weeks on end. Hopefully we won't look like one of those NASA Apollo mission completions when the astronaut got out of the capsule and had to be helped just to walk. Don't think it will be that bad, but it is a fact of our lives none the less. Santi, our physio and work out guru, is going to have to do some quick magic in our short stopover in Rio.

Another hour to the next position report. It sure is more fun to report good scheds to the boys on deck than it is to report bad ones.

Kenny Read - skipper

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