Sport-heute: Sailing - LEG ONE WEEK TWO: MIXED FORTUNES

25. Oktober 2008, 21:02

LEG ONE WEEK TWO: MIXED FORTUNES

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1217 GMT - ERICSSON 4 LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1216 GMT

The second week of leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race to Cape Town saw mixed fortunes as the boats surged up and down the leader board at an alarming pace. Anders Lewander/SWE was making sure that Ericsson 3 was attached to leading boat Puma (Ken Read/USA) by a piece of elastic. Wherever Puma went, Ericsson 3 was sure to follow.

International Ocean Race (mk) Ericsson 4 had dropped to third place after they made a quick detour to the Cape Verde Islands to drop off New Zealander Tony Mutter who had an infected knee, but, at the back of the fleet the fortunes of the two Spanish yachts were beginning to turn.

Onboard Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) the crew dared to hoist their repaired spinnaker. 'For the first time, we are back up to our potential numbers, making us all smile,' wrote Bouwe Bekking.

Conditions below were becoming hot and steamy making sleep harder. Heat means the equator and the Doldrums and there were many 'equatorial virgins' waiting to see what King Neptune had to say. 'I am more worried about this right now than any position report,' said Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker, who had not crossed the equator before.

Day nine and the fleet was fully in the Doldrums and down below, the crew were struggling to sleep in the stifling carbon fibre sauna. 'The heaters have been turned on and the grinders have been turned off,' wrote PUMA's Ken Read/USA. Temperatures rose and rose again as the fleet dodged the big black clouds and the squalls that accompanied them. The next 24-hours would be critical.

Green Dragon, breathing fire, made her move on day 10 as she began to make her move on the fleet from her westerly position. Delta Lloyd (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) was looking good in the east, 31 miles behind the Dragon and Ericsson 3 found a new friend in Telefónica Blue and the two were happily latched together, 28 miles to the west of Kosatka, Team Russia's blue boat who was bringing up the rear with Andreas Hanakamp/AUT (AUT).

Conditions were horrible for the crews. Lots of big clouds and plenty of rain meant that although a fresh-water shower was possible, the novelty soon wore off when everyone got cold. Overnight, Delta Lloyd narrowly avoided an accident when part of their rig detached itself and bounced off the mast and down the deck, narrowly avoiding the crew. The repair took the crew 12 hours, with two crew up the mast for an hour and a half.

By day 12, one by one the eight boats popped out the other side of the Doldrums and hooked into the south-easterly trade winds and started clicking off the miles towards the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha just off the coast of Brazil.

Green Dragon continue to breath fire on the fleet and held the lead round the scoring gate of Fernando de Noronha, on day 13 only to be swiftly relegated. Walker was estatic: , 'Today we achieved what nobody would have thought possible when we left the dock in Alicante. We managed to arrive first and score four valuable points at the scoring gate'.
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PUMA (Ken Read/USA) was the next to add points to their tally followed by Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) and Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP). The top four boats were separated by just eight miles and by day 14, the four-way battle at the top of the fleet was becoming more intense.

At 1300 GMT day 14, Telefónica Black snatched the lead to head the field by just two miles with the Dragons and the Black Cat breathing down their necks. After visits from King Neptune, it was back to business for the fleet as it powered south in the south-east trade winds. With each passing day, the temperature slowly began to drop and sea boots and extra clothes were appearing on deck.

After two weeks at sea and roughly at the half way point, menus were on their second go round, and food had become less of a focal point onboard. 'I hate freeze-dried food,' said Green Dragon skipper Ian Walker. 'I have perfected the art of getting the food (that's what they call it), from my spoon to my throat with minimal contact with my mouth, lips or tongue - the teeth play a key role in getting the food off the spoon - there is certainly no chewing required,' he explained.

There is still over 3,000 nm to the finish, but before the fleet can turn east and head for the famous 'tavern of the seas', they have to skirt the South Atlantic High, which means at least 1000 nm of sailing in what almost feels the wrong direction. The next decision will be when to make the turn east, and which boat makes that decision first.

Leg One Day 14, 24 October 2008: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to leader)

Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) DTF 3242
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +2
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +3
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +8
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +24
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) +40
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +42
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +87
Positions are available every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org . Click on RESULTS at the top of the page to go straight to the points table and onboard data.

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ERICSSON 4 LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1216 GMT

The days have been rolling by very fast and we have been out here for 2 weeks already. It feels like we are on the home stretch now even though we have a lot of weather to get through before Cape Town.

The last 3 days into Cape Town sound wet and wild so we are enjoying being fairly dry and comfortable for another day or so before the low pressure comes and gets us and hopefully carries us most of the way to the finish.

We have had a good night and managed to get ourselves in front but not by much, this race reminds me of how tight the racing use to be in the Volvo 60 boats with the first 4 boats all in sight yesterday and of course we have Puma joined to us again which we are a little tired of.

The boys seem to be making up for Tony not being here but we notice the workload has gone up for everyone and we will miss his skills in the next few days.

I wanted to say hi to my oldest son Liam who follows this race permanently and I hope you are helping Mum with your brothers and behaving yourself, we are doing our best and will see you in Cape Town, Love Dad

Brad Jackson - watch captain

MCM note - Couple of bits of interest this morning, the first was Ryan (Godfrey) sporting a very white neck! Was he getting ready for London 2012 as a shot putter? No he just loves using Sudocrem for any minor scrape or scratch.

The other was the biggest flying fish I have seen - unfortunately it had arrived onboard over night and won't be flying anymore. I reckon that if Chris Dickson had been hit by this fish in the Whitbread in '97, he would have had his head taken off rather than just the black eye he received!

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1217 GMT

Hi there!

It seems to be a dangerous strip of highway we are on today. We had a very near miss with a very nasty looking log covered in barnacles and metal and all sorts of other things that would be perfect for removing appendages.

After a quick breath of relief and some joking about how we may have found ourselves in the Porcao restaurant in Rio some months sooner than planned we had yet another near miss. This time it was something living. We couldn't make out properly what it was but judging by the hole it left in the water and the speed it went away it was pretty big and not best pleased to see us. We'll be sure to keep our eyes peeled for the rest of the afternoon!!

Despite the various obstacles in our path (including more clouds - but this time good ones with nice pressure and a quick chance of a shower), things are going OK. We seem to be connected by a rather long piece of elastic to the guys in front. They spent a bit of last night stretching it out but hopefully the slack is about to take up again and we should see the miles between us decrease. Fingers crossed...

There is not too much to complain about really, the sun is out, we have good breeze and we are going well. Obviously we are still aching to be higher up the rankings but hopefully with a little time and an awful lot of hard work that will come.

Cheers, until tomorrow,

Si Fi.

Simon Fisher - navigator

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GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1659 GMT

It's been a tricky 36 hours on the Green Dragon as we have watched faster boats chip away at our lead and pass us to windward. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that it is day 14 and we are in sight of Puma and Ericsson fighting for the lead. We are punching above our weight and enjoying every second.

Now the wind has dropped and freed up a bit and we are no longer in 'stability reaching ' conditions we can feel a bit more confident about our speed. Our speed problem is simple - we have 460kg less lead in our bulb so power reaching and upwind in strong winds it will be difficult. Having said that, we are still learning the boat and the sail combinations and we know we can and will do a better job. We are collecting data all the time and using it to get faster.

Ahead of us now is a day or two of light air before the leaders pick up a cold front. This looks like being a significant feature which will literally launch us across the South Atlantic. It will be a rough ride and we have started preparing the boat for it and will rest up the crew. Everyone is getting on fine although Anthony Merrington (Youngster) incurred the wrath of Justin Slatter when he was called from his bunk for a sail change - he leapt up naked and threw on the first pair of shorts he could find - these were of course Justin's.

No pants is one thing, but rushing upon the bow to help he got completely hosed from head to foot before returning the shorts to Justin - thanks mate!

You have to watch the Aussies!

Ian Walker - skipper

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DELTA LLOYD LEG ONE DAY 15 QFB: received 25.10.08 1604 GMT

Delta Lloyd day 15, position 290nm east of Salvador, South America, heading south on a heading of 205 degrees. Boat speed 16 knots, wind speed 13.5 knots. Full Main after just shaking out a reef, mast head code zero (great sail).

The website gives Delta Lloyd as 6th which we are, as crow flies Fernando to Cape Town. We have ourselves at 7th. Still as we are first racing south to catch the weather systems there and E3 are further south so are ahead.

Given the compression of now five different weather systems moving through our race track our feeling is that the opportunity may present itself to close some of the leader's gaps. Perhaps a location for a StealthPlay - lets see.

Media crewmember's Apple PC went for a swim today when it fell into bilge water now not operating he is upset and will have to do his editing on land, he can still transmit photos. Not a good day.

Boat and crew in good shape looking forward to a steak and a South African red wine or two in the Cape. Our job list is long incl. a main engine change. Crew and shore support will get little rest in the approx 9 days before start of India Leg.

Cheers from Delta Lloyd

Ger O Rourke - skipper

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Gustav Morin/Ericsson Racing Team

Rick Depp Puma

LEG ONE WEEK TWO: MIXED FORTUNES

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