Sport-heute: Sailing - PUMA LEG TWO DAY 6 QFB: received 20.11.08 2205 GMT

21. November 2008, 14:52

PUMA LEG TWO DAY 6 QFB: received 20.11.08 2205 GMT

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: Received 21.11.08 1204 GMT

Today was a great day. It is the little things in life that tip the scales from not so good, through to great. It is a larger scale on some days than it is on other days. What made today so great is the fact that it has been over 24 hours since we have had out power tools grinding carbon fibre in order to laminate new carbon skins on our damaged yacht. Seriously, this is a great day.

CAPE TOWN - CHOCIN INDIA (mk) I know that the interior of these boats and the lack of amenities have been well documented. The lack of much hygiene, the noises the boat makes and the lack of sleep are all part of the game. Mix in a nice layer of carbon fibre dust in to your clothes, foul weather gear, sleeping bag and food and you have a pretty good idea of what it was like on the fine yacht for the last few days. Sounds lovely doesn't it? It really isn't.

We do have a new lease on life in the race as well. We got the boat going again and made some gains to the north enough to feel like we are back with most of the pack. Not out of the woods yet, but at least we feel like we are back racing with the main part of the fleet. Again, a huge relief. Believe me, there was a point in time where I was wondering if we could make it in to port within a few days of the fleet, never mind feel like we were racing again. Huge testament to the entire PUMA team who all took on our situation quickly and professionally.

So, I don't want to jinx ourselves because we still clearly aren't 100% and things could go pear shaped at any time but at least for now we are racing and very happy on board.

Just got a news report sent to the boat about the pirates off Somalia who snagged an oil tanker...There is some news that we just don't need to know
about...

Ken Read - skipper

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ELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: received 21.11.08 0458 GMT

Laurent's arm is stable (Laurent Pages/FRA), and he has slightly more movement, but still has more pain than he really wants to admit.

Of course the painkillers are doing their job, but also the negative side affects have kicked in, a bad stomach, so now he has to 'run' to the toilet, not easy having only one arm to hold with, we are doing an average of 21 knots, just over 40 km per hour. Very Bumpy. Let's not even talk about the usage of toilet paper.

On deck: wet, wet, wet, and the guys look like soaked cats when they come down below, but no complaints, they are all doing well. These kinds of courses always give good opportunities for guys who don't do a lot of driving in other conditions. Pepe (Pepe Ribes/ESP) for example, is one the fastest in these conditions, just keeps the pressure on and ripping along, slowly but surely, eating miles back from the guys ahead of us

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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ERICSSON 4 LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: received 21.11.08 0828 GMT

I guess it must be huge news onshore but in the last day, we have been getting the news of the piracy off Somalia, apologies if this is the thousandth blog mentioning the fact!

Pirates come in all shapes and forms, from the fully organised terrorist style, which we are reading about so much, to the opportunists. There are a lot of reported incidents, which are not piracy at all. I have sailed many, many miles throughout SE Asia and piracy was one of the big worries in this area, all too often curiosity is reported as piracy.

Many a time I would be several hundred miles from land and a small fishing boat would follow you - sometimes for hours on end. On the odd occasion, the fishing boat would come right along side - often with the occupants fully clothed - even the face covered up - and in 30 degrees or more heat.

Now this always looks a worry when confronted by masked assailants, but in reality, the fishermen cover themselves completely to protect themselves from the sun, they can't go and buy sun cream - no matter what factor! They often come and try to sell you very, very fresh fish - usually for next to nothing or some western food.

These fishermen have probably been on the ocean every day of their lives since their early teens and have not seen a state-of-the-art yacht, which we are so used to in our world. If they are 'for-real pirates' - then they will have so much fire power that you would not be able to do anything even if you wanted to.

We are jib reaching along in 16kts of wind, there is still the odd wave over deck and a lot of spray - but nothing like a few days ago. The temperature is rising quickly and the kit bags are filling up with the thermals - which we won't see until washday (by which time they will probably have learnt to talk...). Life onboard is definitely more civilized

Back to pirates - the only pirates I can think of right now are CBBC's 'Space Pirates' - a show all parents of the young ones will be familiar with and all of whom will surely be able to sing the theme song - which will probably be stuck in my head for the next 24hrs

All good here

Guy Salter - MCM

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GREEN DRAGON LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: received 21.11.08 1013 GMT

We have now entered one of those quiet periods of the race, where nothing too much is happening. Everyone is charging along on a reach at 20 knots but not on the edge, as you would be downwind with a spinnaker.

For those watching at home it is a period where it shouldn't be necessary to check the website every 3 hours. Of course, some boats will gain a few miles and some will lose a few - particularly if they change sails - and there is always a risk of something failing, but in general not much will change compared with either windy or very light and shifty weather.

On board the Green Dragon, we are enjoying crossing off the miles without any dramas and trying to save ourselves for the challenges ahead. On deck, it is very wet as we are hard reaching with jib top and full main but no longer very cold and not yet too hot.

We are able to sail with three on deck and no standby, so everyone is recharging their batteries. What is very pleasing is that we have been able to set the mainsail up quite well without a boom and we can now reef well too. We are sailing at very close to 100% and conversation has changed from how we are going to get to India in time for the start of the next leg, to perhaps being able to beat some boats into Cochin. We are after all in fourth after sailing for 4 days without a boom so who knows.

What will be absolutely crucial is avoiding any upwind sailing so this will strongly affect our tactics. So far, my race predictions have been good and I predict some wildly varying strategies for the last 1000 miles of this race. Every forecast we get is presenting us with a very different optimal route to Cochin and some vary by as much as 1000 miles apart. This is good news from our perspective, as the last thing we want in our current state is a drag race.

One thing that is getting very strange onboard is that ship's time for us is UTC to stay in sync with the race office position reports and weather downloads. As we have been effectively racing due east, we are losing time fast and our clock was 2 hours late relative to local time leaving Cape Town is now 5 hours late relative to local time. That means it is getting light at midnight and dark at three in the afternoon.

Yesterday I was eating dinner as the sun was coming up and it wasn't because I had just got in from the pub. This really messes with your mind so we have decided to slip our mealtimes a few hours to try to compensate. For us, lunch is now cooked at 9am and dinner will be at 3pm. You can of course eat it when you want as it sits in the thermos pot ready for you to serve yourself. Other than that, the only thing to report is that 'man flu' has firmly got a grip of most of us now, which is not entirely surprising as we share sleeping bags, bowls, spoons etc. As long as that remains the worst ailment that comes onboard during this race, I will be a happy man.

Ian Walker - skipper

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PUMA LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: received 21.11.08 1038 GMT

Well here we are... It's cold, bumpy, I'm miserable and the boat feels as though it is falling apart around me, although of course it is not, it's the Volvo. What did I expect? These are hard yards for me aboard Il Mostro. Ugh. How I wish I could go back and do Cape Town again. Two weeks - less in fact - is not enough time to enjoy such a brilliant city and country, I can definitely say that I didn't take advantage of all that it has to offer - apologies to those who were there to support me.

Enough whining: leg two, let's kick some ass as they say, although I say that with full realisation that success or failure in the race is out of my hands - my job and the other 7 media crew members of each boat is to record the action as it happens win or lose.

During the stay in Cape Town, we had chance to check out all of the collective media that has been created by all the teams including the landlubbers. I thought the TV shows were great and am blown away by all the great images, video and writing that is coming off the boats, congratulations to Guy Salter on Ericsson 4 for a well deserved win in the leg one media competition...... excuse me, I think I'm going to throw up.... and to Sander Pluijm on Delta Lloyd for his nomination for the same prize, it's going to be a tough competition to the finish..

Talking about tough... the leg so far has been just that , conditions have not let up since we started and that's a good thing so far as the race and our speedy arrival in Cochin are concerned. Its also been tough with all the repairs going on aboard the yacht Casey Smith (AUS), who is the boat captain of Il Mostro, has done a brilliant job of keeping us in the race, and his efforts and skill means that we will probably make it to India, maybe even win... we will probably all die of some horrible lung condition though... the boat was full of carbon dust for a while. All in a day's work for this crew... The sailing conditions have been very tough and the crew has currently turned into what I lovingly call 'sailing robots'... Sail-Sleep-Eat... repeat.

I'm writing this blog whilst I upload some video that we shot on the boat regarding the spate of pirate attacks that seem to be occurring more and more in the hot zone off the East Africa coast that we seem hell bent on getting to as quick as possible .... Wonder if we'll be raided and held for ransom... wish Jerry (Jerry Kirby/USA) was here.. Then again, maybe not.

Rick Deppe - MCM

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TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG TWO DAY 7 QFB: Received 21.11.08 1204 GMT

Hi there,

Since we snuck through the scoring gate ahead of Puma and our boys on the black boat, things have been on the up and up. We have been going really well in the last 24 hours, which is a great motivator for everyone onboard.

Gone are the memories of struggling in the big downwind conditions, right now it is all about reaching and that we like, a lot. We have steadily been eating up the miles on the guys in front of us and putting a few more miles on the guys behind so, for a change, there are no complaints from the navigator today! Just a few subtle alterations to the course as the wind shifts and we manoeuvre to try to optimise our position relative to the fleet. I have been busy following the numbers, eagerly awaiting the scheds, maybe even looking forward to them to see how we have gone. Right now, it is our time to shine and I am keen to really try to make the most of it.

So life on board is all pretty good. It is even getting a little warmer, although I think we are going to have to wait a little longer before it gets drier. Reaching on this angle there is constant spray over the deck so we are not peeling the layers of just yet. Personally, I cannot wait to get out of my thermals that have been slightly damp for days now. Just when you think you have them dried out, another sail change comes along, you are washed down the deck and the water manages to get into all the places in your waterproofs you would think it couldn't get.

Not even this can hamper my spirits now however, wet legs is a small price to pay when you are winning back miles every three hours so for now I am more than happy to wait.

Cheers

Simon Fisher - navigator

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