90 miles to go

Ericsson 4 expected to be first home later today on leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race

Saturday November 29th 2008, Author: James Boyd, Location: United Kingdom

Key: ERT4 (Ericsson 4), TELN (Telefonica Black), TELA (Telefonica Blue), ILMO (Puma), GDRA (Green Dragon), KOSA (Team Russia), DLYD (Delta Lloyd).

Image above courtesy of Expedition and Predict Wind
 
Positions at 0655 GMT
 
Pos
Boat Skipper
Lat
Long
24hr run
DTF
DTL
1
Ericsson 4 Torben Grael
08,28.33N
076,20.96E
330
90.3
2
Telefonica Blue Bouwe Bekking
06,37.12N
076,04.89E
331
200.7
110.4
3
Ericsson 3 Anders Lewander
03,57.00N
076,38.16E
269
361.1
270.8
4
Green Dragon Ian Walker
03,25.68N
076,40.28E
244
393.4
303.1
5
Puma Ken Read
03,22.20N
076,44.91E
247
397.2
306.9
6
Delta Lloyd Ger O'Rourke
03,17.100N
076,40.70E
236
401.1
310.8
7
Telefonica Black Fernando Echavarri
02,48.52N
076,01.96E
245
429.4
339.1
8
Team Russia Andreas Hanakamp
00,44.40S
077,51.04E
88
650.2
559.9
 
While the horrors emerge from Mumbai 600 miles up the coast, so the Volvo Ocean Race organisation is bracing itself for the first arrivals in from leg two. At 0655 Torben Grael and his team on Ericsson 4 had just 90.3 miles to go and had slowed to 11.5 knots. Nonetheless at this pace Ericsson 4 will score her second consecutive leg win in the Volvo Ocean Race mid-afternoon or possibly earlier as the forecast is indicating 15 knot easterlies from their present position to the finish.

In Cochin, the stopover facilities are stretched across two acres on Willingdon Island, just off the city proper. Infrastructure in the area has been given a serious upgrade under the watchful eye of the Cochin Port Trust’s chairman, N Ramachandran.

“A lot of hard work from a lot of people has gotten the site to this stage,” Ramachandran said. “The race is arriving ahead of schedule (originally the boats weren’t expected until Wednesday) but we will be able to get everything ready for then. A lot of people have worked hard on this.”

Although India has been shaken by a terrible terrorist attack 1,000 kilometres to the north, in Mumbai, stopover officials here are determined that nothing detracts from the events scheduled over the next two weeks. Security has been stepped up but Ramachandran is expecting healthy visitor numbers through the village.

“We believe that at least 50,000 to 100,000 people will be visiting the race village on the important dates, such as arrivals and departures,” Ramachandran revealed. “On the days in between we are expecting at least 50,000 footfalls.”

The majority of visitors are expected to be locals and domestic tourists from elsewhere in India, but the local organisers hope that foreigners and teams will discover what Kerala is all about. To underline their point, National Geographic Traveller magazine described the region as one of the “10 paradises of the world”.

Back to the race and Ericsson 4 has done well over the last 24 hours to maintain a lead of more than 100 miles over Bouwe Bekking's Telefonica Blue. However rather than the leaders being stalled, so they have both extended with 270 miles now between the leader and their teammates on third placed Ericsson 3 compared to 222 yesterday. However in the cluster of four boats racing for third, the distance between Ericsson 3 and Delta Lloyd, now down to sixth having been overtaken by Puma, has now increased from 17 miles yesterday to 40 miles this morning.

Across the fleet the boats are sailing in very different wind conditions - Ericsson 4 has 11 knots from the southeast, while data off the boat shows Telefonica Blue to have 23 knots from the west, while the boats behind have 14-15 knots from the west too. So there is a significant backing of the wind the further they sail up the race course.


Guy Salter reports from Ericsson 4 :

We are experiencing a little difference in wind from forecast to what we actually have - and for once, it is in our favour.

Flying along in flat water at 20 knots is a great feeling and these boats quickly remind you of just how aggressive they can be. Even in 5 knots of wind, we can see the speed up to 10kts, and now in 17 knots we are low 20s and high teens constantly.

It’s easy to get complacent about how many miles these boats quickly eat up and spit out. We have seen more current than expected as it flows between the Maldives 200nm to our left. What awaits us up the coast of India is anyone’s guess, and there is a chance that we will be playing close to the shore as, if the predicted light winds appear, then we will need the local land and sea breezes to get us to Cochin, hopefully in 1st place.

We have put a lot of miles on the rest of the fleet in the past two days, but could easily see this all vanish under one cloud. In the last 20 hrs our ETA has changed by more than two days, so as far as knowing when we will finish - that’s anyone's guess...

Simon Fisher reports from Telefonica Blue :

On deck this morning, it was dark, grey and raining, with little wind. It was hard to believe you weren’t somewhere in northern Europe in the depths of winter, when you looked around, other than the fact that everyone was in shorts and t-shirts and didn’t seem to mind the least little bit.

We had a good run last night with nice breeze but early this morning we parked. There were a few massive clouds and that was it, we were stuck there, wallowing in a leftover swell and very little breeze. It seemed like we could have been stuck there for hours, as all around it looked as though there was little wind and that perhaps our quick run north had finally come to an end.

Luckily, however this was not to be. We picked up a few small puffs that got us moving again. We unfurled our big sails when we felt the breeze was sufficiently stable and we wouldn’t stop once more, but then, only minutes later, it was quite the opposite, the wind continued to build and build until we had 25+ knots and we were roaring along at a similar speed.

It was a rapid change of modes needed from drifting to blasting as everything came back in the boat and the stack was loaded up once more. A couple of hours later I am very happy to report that we are still blasting along and the miles left to the finish line are dropping away quicker than I had imagined.

I might be soaked to the skin from rain and sea spray, but I don’t mind at all - the sea temperature is pushing 30 degrees and the prospect of a good curry and a cobra beer is only 24 hours away! The last few miles are sure to be the toughest, but given that they may be coming sooner than we thought means smiles all round!


Richard Mason reports from Ericsson 3 :

Passing by the nav station this afternoon, after 4 hours of a gust being 3 knots of wind and glancing at GPS, brought memories flooding back of only days ago. Top speed for trip, 39.4 knots! Not 3.94 knots.

If I remember correctly, we were in the nav station every few hours: “How much longer do we have this breeze for? When do you think it is going to drop off? Now it is replaced by; “when are we going to get some breeze and do you think we will have it for more than 5 minutes?”

This afternoon was marked by the second crossing of the equator in this race and a re-awakening of King Neptune. He was not amused to be disturbed so early in the race for a second time and took some severe punishment to the only crewmember of Ericsson 3 to have not yet crossed the equator, young Martin Strömberg.

Martin was, without compassion, lashed to the aft media aerial and after not being able to give the latitude of Cape Horn, laden with the heathen brew. As extra punishment for being a sail maker, Neptune’s latest helper in a long line of helpers going back as far as lady Cod Fish, James the Hairdresser (Martin Krite) from Southern Sweden, famous for its fashion in hair design, came on deck to unleash the latest in heavy metal basher mullock hair styling.

It was only minutes before our victim was refashioned into a 1980’s Def Leopard fan look alike. If any of our shore crew is reading this, Martin will need a black def leopard Singlet, one pair of tight black jeans and Doctor Martin boots as soon as he hits the dock.

King Neptune was satisfied with the massive punishment handed out .He let us pass on our way and disappeared into the bowels of Ericsson 3.

All in all, a very entertaining afternoon. As for the remainder of the leg, well it feels as we have a long way to go!

Rick Deppe reports from Puma :

It's like running a marathon, you have four or five miles to go to the finish and you can see two runners in front of you.....one about 150 meters and the other about 400 meters. The road to the finish is straight with no corners or turns and right now has a slightly downhill gradient, so everyone is running smooth and loose with not many passing lanes. Right before the finish there is a hill and there may be some opportunity for passing boats there but for now you have to just try and run a little faster than them both without hitting the wall and at the same time hoping that they a) run out of steam just a little bit sooner than you or b) have the misfortune to break a shoelace or experience some other minor mishap.

Obviously the four miles I'm referring to is the 400 miles we have to the finish in Kochi, India, and the two other runners are Green Dragon and Ericsson 3 and the road gradient is the wind.

So it feels like no-one's talking about Pirates anymore, and I'm guessing it's because the news cycle has a new story. I wonder if we'll be doing phone interviews along the lines of "what does it feel like to be sailing towards a conflict zone" in the same way that we had questions regarding pirates at the start of this leg. We have been getting snippets of information about the dramatic situation in Mumbai and although I make light of things we know for certain that sadly a number of people have died in horrible circumstances. It's a bit worrying knowing that your own and other people's family members, friends and shorecrew are there waiting for us in Kochi, not a million miles from Mumbai, but we mustn't let it get to us, as that's what those people want. We're looking forward to getting to this new and exciting port and all of the adventures it brings.

Matt Gregory reports from Delta Lloyd :

Both Green Dragon and Puma are still within sight. The Green Dragon is about 200 meters off our windward stern quarter and Puma is about 6 miles away- behind and to leeward of us. This is great racing. Having other boats to continuously gauge speed and performance against makes the hours tick by very quickly. We lament every boat length loss and revel in every gain. We know that Ericsson 3 is just over the horizon in front of us. We are pushing as hard as we can so that we are within visual contact with them again.

However, we aren't just focused on the race with this group of boats; we are also racing the weather. We are at the very southern side of a northwardly moving and dying wind zone. In the wake of this area is complete calm. If we fall off the back of this wind area then we could be out here for a very long time. Right now, we are sailing at 12 knots of boat speed in an equal amount of wind. Miles are once again ticking away on the odometer at a rapid pace, which helps to ease my worries about spending the next week out here.

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