SailingPR - Sailing & Regatas

Another spectacular send off. Cape Town had some lofty expectations to live up to and not only did the city, the country, and the people live up to them, they blew us away. We can’t thank all the folks we met enough- both the locals and the troops at PUMA. It was sad to leave. And as always it was sad to leave our families and friends, not to mention the shore team who did a spectacular job getting the boat in great shape over a tough couple weeks. I bet the shore team wasn’t too sad to see us leave!

With that said, we are leaving with a vengeance! I am actually struggling to write this note because we’re getting thrown around the boat like a pair of dice hitting a craps table. Our start couldn’t have been better- gorgeous day and a quick lead for the fine yacht ‘il mostro’. But it didn’t last long…the infamous wind hole under Table Mountain played her tricks on us and we went from having a large lead to being stuck in a glue pot watching a few others sail by. We had a strategy- expecting the hole, but the strategy to get offshore quickly didn’t exactly work to plan. Anyway, after a gorgeous beat down the coast with eight Volvo 70’s tacking along the mountains in 20-25 knots of wind, we caught up with the race leader E3 just at sunset right off Cape Point. A great day if you liked to sail.

Also as anticipated, the night brought a shift in the weather and a chance to get across a ridge into the Southern Ocean westerlies being carried by a large low pressure system coming from the west. Well we did it. A morning check in with E4 about a half mile from us (no shocker!) and a building breeze led us to where we are now. Careening down waves in 27 knots of breeze against 2+ plus knots of current called the Agulhas Current, trying to write this note. And, it’s a bit moist on deck…nasty right now actually.

One small issue on board is a bit of a flu that has taken hold- not very much fun for a few of us. And the great news for the rest of the group is they can almost be guaranteed to get the cold eventually, based on the unavoidable hygiene on a lovely V-70 petri dish. Which is why this may be one of the more bland notes you will (hopefully) read from il mostro. I need some more Advil! My head is killing me, and it’s not just the flu. I just smashed it into a winch structure under deck getting my foul weather gear off. You would think that I would know it was there by now!

Ken Read - skipper

Compared with our first 24 hours leaving Alicante, the first 24 hours of this leg have been relatively event free. Despite this, it has been quite tiring on the crew, as we have had an abundance of sail changes.

We used most of our sails before getting away from Cape Town. Tactically what had looked like a minefield has not panned out too badly. We made a brave call to sail for about 3 hours in completely the wrong direction to get into the westerlies earlier and were thankfully well rewarded. Now the whole fleet is charging along in 20 - 25 knots of westerly and we have just dealt with the worst of the Agulhas Current.

It is nice to have some other boats in sight compared with the last leg and it is even nicer that we seem able, in these conditions, to hold the two Telefónicas and ERT 3 behind us. Puma and ERT 4 have a good break from the fleet with speed to burn.

Other than a bit if an uncomfortable trip up the mast for Justin to solve a reefing problem there is nothing much to report. There are the normal first day blues as we struggle to get used to the food and sleep patterns and, for most of us, the realisation that we will not see our families until Christmas. Cape Town is a fantastic stopover and it will always be hard to leave.

Ian Walker - skipper

No one that was watching the Cape Town start from a boat will never ever forget it. It was like experiencing the whole first leg in one hour. We had everything from 25 knots to almost no wind at all. The fleet was a bit separated after 25 minutes, but then we went into a big light spot, just outside the harbour, in the wind shadow from Table Mountain. It felt like a mini Doldrums where anything could happen.

And things were really happening. But mostly before the ‘Doldrums’. From our perspective, not everything went very smoothly. Our jib got caught on the radar in one of the first tacks and got a small rip. The sail was not the most irritating part, but the fact that the radar was hanging on a thread. It was about to get even worse.

In the third tack, the sail got caught again and ripped badly. At the same time, the radar fell down in the cockpit. Not a very nice feeling when you are heading for the Southern Ocean and later up to India, passing the equator where big squalls are very common and the radar can guide you through them.

Well, on the lucky side is that no one was hit and that we managed to stay in the race. Hopefully we can fix it. According to Jens Dolmer, our hard working handyman, it is possible.

The sail has already been fixed. Skipper Anders Lewander and Martin Stromberg started repairing straight away and finished a couple of hours later. It was quite a big rip and the sail will never be as good as it was, but pretty close to it, the guys did a great job.

Now I’m sitting in the darkness beside the media desk. It is very hard to stay awake before you get use to rhythm onboard. I don’t know how many times I have fallen asleep during the time I’ve been writing. I always wake up in a few seconds with the screen full of letters, which I have pushed in my sleep.

Over and out from Ericsson 3, meet you soon again.

Gustav Morin - MCM

What a fantastic send off from Cape Town. The course around the bay was great fun. The spectator boats were everywhere, several getting in the way but we knew it didn’t matter as the race was bound to restart under Table Mountain. Something I shall remember for along time to come.

We are now settled into a routine and Ian (Moore) has put us in a good spot. Conditions are very comfortable with a building westerly breeze.

Ian Walker - skipper

A typical Cape Town departure, bright sunshine and thousands of people on the docks and not to forget the enthusiastic people on the water. The start was ok, not pushing it too hard, as we knew a park-up would happen.

The first leg we were dog slow, we had big piece of weed on the rudder, but once that was cleared, we were off. Had a good beat up the Cape, and lots of tacking, so very little sleep for the guys. We got stuck together with Ericsson 3 in a light patch this morning, which nobody else seemed to sail through, that was expensive. But, now we are on our way again, and have three boats in sight. The boys are now, for the first time, in their sleeping bag and catching some well-deserved sleep. The breeze will slowly build, and we will keep that for a couple of day getting some good daily miles under our belt.

Cheers,

Bouwe Bekking - skipper

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

Estocolmo, Suecia,(23 de octubre, 2008) - Ericsson 4 añadió hoy 3,5 puntos a su casillero en la Volvo Ocean Race al ser el segundo barco en cruzar la puerta puntuable de Fernando de Noronha.

Sumados a los puntos de la regata In-Port de Alicante, el patrón Torben Grael y su tripulación internacional tienen 6 puntos, y están en el liderato en un empate a cinco sin precedentes.

Green Dragon (primero en la puerta puntuable) y Puma (tercero) también tienen 6 puntos. Telefónica Negro (predeciblemente cuarto) y Telefónica Azul (predeciblemente quinto) también se esperaba que sumaran 6 puntos tras pasar la puerta puntuable. (En el momento de ERICSSON 4 PASA SEGUNDO LA PUERTA PUNTUABLE DE LA PRIMERA ETAPA Estocolmo, Suecia,(23 de octubre, 2008) - Ericsson 4 añadió hoy 3,5 puntos a su casillero en la Volvo Ocean Race al ser el segundo barco
en cruzar la puerta puntuable de Fernando de Noronha.

Sumados a los puntos de la regata In-Port de Alicante, el patrón Torben Grael y su tripulación internacional tienen 6 puntos, y están en el liderato en un empate a cinco sin precedentes.

Green Dragon (primero en la puerta puntuable) y Puma (tercero) también tienen 6 puntos. Telefónica Negro (predeciblemente cuarto) y Telefónica Azul (predeciblemente quinto) también se esperaba que sumaran 6 puntos tras pasar la puerta puntuable. (En el momento de escribir estas líneas los dos barcos de Telefónica aún tenían que pasar la puerta, pero sus posiciones parecían establecidas.)

Ericsson 4 cruzó la puerta puntuable al oeste del archipiélago brasileño a las 13:59 GMT. La tripulación internacional superó a su principal rival, el Puma, aguantando su posición a barlovento del barco americano, que tuvo que virar para pasar por el extremo oeste de la puerta puntuable. Esto dio a la tripulación de Grael la oportunidad que necesitaban para saltar al segundo puesto y hacerse con medio punto extra. Green Dragon lideró a la flota a su paso por la puerta a las 12:24, unas 13 ó 14 millas por delante de Ericsson 4.

“Ha sido un trabajo realmente duro ya que hemos navegado en un mar muy picado con entre 20 y 25 nudos de viento. Todo cuesta tres veces más esfuerzo cuando el barco golpea las olas”, dijo el tripulante de medios de Ericsson 4, Guy Salter. “La presión de ser un hombre menos se está presentando además en las condiciones más duras pero parece que nos las estamos apañando, aunque si Tony estuviera aquí probablemente tendríamos esa marcha extra que él nos suele dar”.

Más atrás en la flota, Ericsson 3 continúa recuperándose de sus pérdidas tras una enloquecedora travesía a través de los Doldrums (calmas tropicales). A las 13:00 GMT de hoy, el patrón Anders Lewander y la tripulación nórdica estaban a 153 millas detrás del líder, habiendo reducido su desventaja en 30 millas durante las pasadas 24 horas.

La tripulació nórdica se vio atrapada en los Doldrums durante 15 horas más que el Ericsson 4 y perdió una distancia ignificativa en una situación incontrolable. Algunos de los tripulantes estaban tan enloquecidos por los vientos débiles que hubieran preferido estar en la silla del dentista. Desafortunadamente para el danés Stefan Myralf, él tendrá que pasar por ambas situaciones.

Myralf (48 años, de Hellerup, Dinamarca) se rompió un diente ayer mientras desayunaba. Su plato: un bol de muesli. El culpable: un trozo duro de muesli. El incidente requirió la atención del jefe de guardia Richard Mason, quien a veces es trimmer, a veces timonel y a veces médico de a bordo. Así de versátil es la vida de un tripulante en un VO 70.

Una vez cruzada la puerta puntuable, quedan aproximadamente 3.300 millas náuticas para el final de etapa en Ciudad del Cabo. El último gran obstáculo que enfrentar es el anticiclón de Santa Helena, el sistema de altas presiones del Atlántico Sur. Este gran sistema que se mueve en el sentido contrario a las agujas del reloj se extiende virtualmente desde Sudamérica a África.

Una regata increíblemente reñida se puso incluso más disputada hoy con el paso de la puerta puntuable. Ahora que las cinco primeras tripulaciones están empatadas, será un loco esprint hacia Ciudad del Cabo para apropiarse del liderazgo en la regata de circunnavegación global.

TABLA DE POSICIONES DE LA VOLVO OCEAN RACE
(23 Oct., 2008, 13:00 GMT)
1. Green Dragon a 3.354 millas náuticas del fin de etapa
2. Ericsson 4, a 13 mn del líder
3. Puma, a 16 nm del líder
4. Telefónica Black, a 31 nm del líder
5. Telefónica Blue, a 96 nm del líder
6. Ericsson 3, a 153 nm del líder
7. Delta Lloyd, a 174 nm del líder
8. Kosatka, a 197 nm del líder