Sport-heute: Sailing - ERICSSON 3 LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 0603 GMT-THE NIGHT FROM HELL

30. Oktober 2008, 22:03

ERICSSON 3 LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 0603 GMT-THE NIGHT FROM HELL

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG ONE DAY 20: received 0918 GMT - GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 0839 GMT

Summary of last 36 hours:

Passed 2 Telefónica boats. 200 squalls, or sailed in one squall the whole way depending on how you look at it.
New top speed for Ericsson 3. New max wind speed with spinnaker up - 46 knots. BTW it was during black night in rain and bad sea state. It felt just fine from the navigator's bunk. Three sail changes within two hours, whereof two involuntarily, costing lots of miles.
11 wet guys. 3 bent and jammed carabinos on harnesses after people being washed along the deck. Waking up in the bunk with cramp from holding on while asleep. Waking up in the bunk in front after digging the bow in downwind. Ended up IN the cold front rather than ahead of it like E4 and Puma.
Dropped off the front and caught up with it again - could be decisive one way or the other.
No spinnaker last night after recalling the night before.

International Ocean (mk) Some basic rules inside the boat:

1. Keep your feet at least 1.5 metres apart, you have no idea what the boat's next move will be, but you know it will be abrupt.

2. Never leave an open space ahead of you - you will dive far when we dig the nose in

3. Always hold on to something. When we dig the nose in, it is always as you transfer from one place to hold on to, to another.

4. Do not spend any time forward of the mast (where the galley, foul weather gear and toilet are) - it will be painful..

Aksel Magdahl - navigator

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG ONE DAY 20: received 0918 GMT

The last 24-hours we have been hanging in, not only sailing-wise, but as well you can see that less sleep is taking its toll.

We got rolled by the front last evening, lots of rain and big gust of wind, up to 40 knots. Immediately after the front, the breeze dropped to a teasing 10-15 knots, but the big seas were still present, so we got rocked around heavily.

We decided to dive south and to see if we can make any gains with our approach towards Cape Town and hoping for more pressure. On the mileage table it doesn't look very good, as the leaders still are racing straight to Cape Town. It is painful to look at it, but we have to think long range and how we can get there as quickly as possible. We can see that our team mates on the black boat must have had a mishap, as they slowed down dramatically. I can imagine they tipped it in during the front passage, and it takes a long time to get everything back on the rails after a mishap.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 0839 GMT

I don't really know where to start as the last 24 hours has been so incident-packed. I guess I'll start at the beginning which was a tale of various nosedives in increasingly disturbed seas yesterday. This has led to various bodily injuries all of which are manageable. The luckiest man on the boat is Guo Chuan, our Chinese crew member.

In one nosedive, he managed to fly from the companionway head over heels once or twice, and end up head first upside down in the rubbish bag in the galley - a distance of approximately 5 metres forward and 2 metres down.

Andrew (McLean/NZL) pulled him out by the legs and he was unscathed, apart from a new nickname - the 'cannonball'. Not content with this, he was on deck for the next one and face planted into a winch - his nose has seen better days but he is still fine he insists.

Back on the track, the front has outrun us and we had a 60 degree shift which meant we had to gybe south. We were settling into this course when, at 0130, we hit something in the water.

There was a deafening crunch and the boat went from 25 knots to a virtual standstill. Neal (McDonald/GRB), who was helming, smashed the wheel and everyone else fell over.

We inspected the hull, foils and keel for damage as best we could and all seemed fine, apart from a huge vibration - presumably caused by whatever was now on the keel. We decided to live with this until daylight but a few hours later it seemed to have cleared itself. Today we can see clearly on the keel that we hit something hard - thank goodness it wasn't the rudders or they would have broken.

By now people were getting tired after 2 gybes and all this excitement. To make matters worse, at first light today we buried the bow so hard the A6 spinnaker came back and stoved in the pulpit and forward stanchions before ripping to pieces. Our resident sailmaker, Phil Harmer (AUS), thinks he can fix it in a day, which is good as we need it ASAP. The metalwork can wait 'til Cape Town.

Somehow ERT3 seems to have carried on in the north wind which confounds the fact that they were west of us as the front passed over. This and all our escapades means we have lost 3rd place for now. The Green Dragon is wounded but far from slain - we will continue to puGREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 0839 GMT

I don't really know where to start as the last 24 hours has been so incident-packed. I guess I'll start at the beginning which was a tale of various nosedives in increasingly disturbed seas yesterday. This has led to various bodily injuries all of which are manageable. The luckiest man on the boat is Guo Chuan, our Chinese crew member.

In one nosedive, he managed to fly from the companionway head over heels once or twice, and end up head first upside down in the rubbish bag in the galley - a distance of approximately 5 metres forward and 2 metres down.

Andrew (McLean/NZL) pulled him out by the legs and he was unscathed, apart from a new nickname - the 'cannonball'. Not content with this, he was on deck for the next one and face planted into a winch - his nose has seen better days but he is still fine he insists.

Back on the track, the front has outrun us and we had a 60 degree shift which meant we had to gybe south. We were settling into this course when, at 0130, we hit something in the water.

There was a deafening crunch and the boat went from 25 knots to a virtual standstill. Neal (McDonald/GRB), who was helming, smashed the wheel and everyone else fell over.

We inspected the hull, foils and keel for damage as best we could and all seemed fine, apart from a huge vibration - presumably caused by whatever was now on the keel. We decided to live with this until daylight but a few hours later it seemed to have cleared itself. Today we can see clearly on the keel that we hit something hard - thank goodness it wasn't the rudders or they would have broken.

By now people were getting tired after 2 gybes and all this excitement. To make matters worse, at first light today we buried the bow so hard the A6 spinnaker came back and stoved in the pulpit and forward
stanchions before ripping to pieces. Our resident sailmaker, Phil Harmer (AUS), thinks he can fix it in a day, which is good as we need it ASAP. The metalwork can wait 'til Cape Town.

Somehow ERT3 seems to have carried on in the north wind which confounds the fact that they were west of us as the front passed over. This and all our escapades means we have lost 3rd place for now. The Green Dragon is wounded but far from slain - we will continue to push as hard as we sensibly can. Right now it is over 30 knots again and it will be for the next 24 hours at least.

Ian Walker - skippersh as hard as we sensibly can. Right now it is over 30 knots again and it will be for the next 24 hours at least.

Ian Walker - skipper

Picters from Telefonica Blue

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THE NIGHT FROM HELL

It was the night from hell for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, as the cold front swept over the fleet, and one by one, the eight boats were left with huge seas and vicious squalls.

While Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) rode the front, extended their lead to 76 nm from PUMA (Ken Read/USA) and broke through the magical 600 nautical mile barrier, claiming yet another 24-hour world record, Telefónica Black (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) lost a rudder, wiped off their bowsprit and damaged one of their daggerboards, cutting away the spinnaker in the process.

'It's not every day you get to have a ride as we have had over the past day or so, and to get a new 24-hour record has been superb, but the reality of that feat out here hasn't really sunk in,' wrote Ericsson 4 MCM Guy Salter this morning, but it was a different story on Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR), who has slipped down the leader board.

'I don't really know where to start as the last 24-hours has been so incident-packed,' wrote Ian Walker, whose Green Dragon hit something hard in the pitch dark.

'There was deafening crunch and the boat went from 25 knots to a virtual standstill. Neal McDonald/GBR, who was helming, smashed the wheel and everyone else fell over,' he said. The crew inspected the hull, foils and keel for damage and report that all seems fine, apart from a huge vibration which later cleared itself.

As daylight broke, and the crew were tiring, Green Dragon buried her bow so hard that the A6 spinnaker came back and stove in the pulpit and forward stanchions before ripping to pieces. 'The Green Dragon is wounded, but far from slain,' wrote Walker this morning. The team is in fourth place, but 266 nm adrift from the leaders

Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED), in fifth place, reported 40 knots of wind, lots rain and big gusts as the front rolled over them. 'The last 24-hours we have been hanging in, not only sailing-wise, but you can see that less sleep is taking its toll,' he said.

After the close racing of the previous two weeks, the last two days of wild sailing has caused the fleet to spread out, with 458 nm separating first to last.

Green Dragon and Telefónica Blue have both taken a dive south, while Ericsson 4 leads PUMA and Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) in the north. Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) in seventh, and Delta Lloyd (Ger O'Rourke/NED) in eighth, are also to the south, while the wounded Telefónica Black limps, with an emergency rudder, midway between the split of the fleet.

With 1122 nm still to run to the finish for Ericsson 4, computers are predicting a Sunday mid-morning arrival for her, but there are still challenges to be faced in the approach to Cape Town and the end of this epic 6,500 nm opening leg.

Race weather forecaster, Jennifer Lilly, says that winds will ease to the mid 20s today, the late teens tomorrow and finally fall to around 10 knots over the weekend. She says that without a doubt the fleet is expected to slow as they approach Cape Town, but it looks possible that the leaders will slow more than the followers. 'The question on everyone's minds will be: how much can the trailing teams gain,' she says.

Leg One Day 20: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to leader)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 1122
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +76
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +163
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +266
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +345
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando EchÃ¡varri/ESP) +430
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +454
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) +458

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ERICSSON 4 LEG ONE DAY 20 QFB: received 30.10.08 1121 GMT

Very unlike me to spend too much time at the computer at sea, but I have been asked to write today as it is my birthday. Yay! Happy Birthday to me etc etc.

A quick thank you to those of you who remembered, and thanks very much to those of you who didn't.

Nothing different on board today, although I did try and see if I could miss my morning watch and stay in bed. No such luck! Not even a cup of coffee was made for me this morning as we are all working pretty hard to keep the boat moving fast while keeping it in one piece.

Our on board media crew member Guy Salter has managed to co-ordinate with my wife to make a little birthday wish video featuring my 11 month old son. Quite possibly the best birthday present ever...a little heart string was given a tug and a quick reminder that there is life outside this damp dark existence. Life outside the break-neck speeds, constant rashes and rubbish food...a life I am quite looking forward to getting back to!

I'd like to finish by thanking our shore crew, who did such a good job with the preparation of this boat (and ERT 3). Such detailed preparation was paramount in us having enough confidence to hold this poor boat's head under and sail to a new 24 hour speed record. I would also like to apologise in advance to the shore crew as this poor boat has been THRASHED!!! It'll be a busy couple of weeks in Cape Town. See you soon!

Dave Endean (again!) - pitman

MCM note: Dave does however get special privileges today:

His own bucket and sponge (for the day)
His choice of lunch and dinner (lunch is a set menu with choice of 2 mains - dinner is a set menu with the other he didn't have for lunch)
His own bunk - luckily vacated by Tony for the day!

Who says we don't know how to treat a new 30 yr old on E4!

Guy Salter

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