The battle for second

Assa Abloy is displaced

Email from Roger Nilson aboard Amer Sports One

Hard catching up

Yesterday morning, just before the southeast corner of the icebox, things looked good for a while. News Corp and SEB were stuck in light air underneath a cloud and we managed to come right up to them. Dead even with News Corp and 1.5 miles behind SEB. Light reaching, on flat water, with our new zero [Code 0 spinnaker], we kept their pace. But when the breeze and waves picked up, they both just simply walked away from us. Looking for a decent chance to make gains, yesterday we made a short gybe north as the breeze to the south went light for a while.

Then the low filled in. All night we have been blasting along in 30 knots of wind, making 21 knots over the ground. Great sailing but a few boats are even faster. Tomorrow when the power of the low is going down, as the weather system escapes to the northeast, we expect a lift and eventually a gybe. If SEB is not too close to the Azores high at that time, she will make out just fine. If she is a bit close, boats to the north will gain. Tyco and Assa Abloy are playing the same game, just a bit further north. Tyco will have a good chance to stay ahead of Assa Abloy, if she keeps the wind speed up.

Since we lost close contact with the lead already in the Gulf Stream, the rich have become richer. Our chance to catch up with the leading group will come only if a solid high ridge compresses the whole fleet. Just now that seems unlikely and we are mostly concentrating on fighting for the fourth place. illbruck has a good chance to repeat EF's record from last race. She could have won the Volvo Ocean Race before the last leg to Kiel starts. Assa Abloy has been very hard to beat since Sydney and they are certainly getting close to second overall if nothing drastic happens in the end of this leg or next. Right now three boats are fighting hard for the last overall place on the podium, News Corp, Tyco and us.

All is well onboard and Dee [Smith] and myself are in better health then at the start. Pepe [Ribez] has got Dee's flu but will hopefully be fine in a few days. Right now the race is very physical, keeping the whole watch of five working very hard all the time. Helmsman, trimmer of main, trimmer of spinnaker and working with two grinders. In 35 kts TWS [true wind speed] we are just flying and the sailing is just on the edge. The smallest mistake from one of the five on deck can create a major disaster, minimum a blown out kite. Our max sized, Code 6, fractional spi is very important and we certainly cannot afford to destroy it in a wild broach. The boat is heavily stacked aft with every item as far back as possible to keep the rudder down. The off watch is sleeping all the way aft, and only two people are allowed forward of the mast in the galley area. We are pushing hard so watch out ahead...