Lengthening course

Volvo 70s getting to St Petersburg too quickly

The seven boats racing, plus Team Russia, who is accompanying the fleet, are beating under a blazing sun towards the finish line of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 in St Petersburg tomorrow. Progress has been faster than predicted and the Race Director has just extended the course by 45 nautical miles, which has been an unpopular decision among some of the crews who are anxious to finish. The fleet is currently off the coast of Estonia, in the Gulf of Finland.

Very little if any, sleep has been had by the crews, who have been sitting on the rail for most of the night, racing this leg as if it were the Fastnet Race, but now, as the pace settles and tiredness is creeping in, the bunks are filled to capacity.

Ian Walker’s heart missed a beat when Green Dragon passed over a rocky ledge between two islands this morning. “I had my heart in my mouth as the depth dropped to 1.9 metres below the keel. I prayed that the chart was accurate and breathed a sign of relieve as the depth shot back up. That’s enough of those scares for one day,” he said.

There is an air of finality now as less than 120 miles remain for Puma who leads the field by 2 miles, before the adventure is over and the final celebrations can begin.
The fleet is expected to arrive at the finish early tomorrow morning before parading into St Petersburg later in the afternoon.

Guy Salter reports from Ericsson 4:

The fleet is spread over the Gulf of Finland but we can still see the majority of them.

Overall, we have not faired the best this morning, but a 15-degree shift could change things dramatically.

With only 160nm to the finish (not including the flexi course triangle that may be included at the finish) it could be hard to close the ground - but then again as with all legs - the closer to land, the more unpredictable the breeze.

We are also expecting a significant reduction in wind speed - which also put the cat amongst the pigeons - so to speak!

We have had a very easy trip - to date the only sail changes we have had were on the loop at the start - to go this long without action is exceptionally rare. The sun is blazing and the water is amazingly flat - I guess we are more used to the open ocean - which is a long way to the west of us right now.

Overall very pleasant - if not bordering on the boring

Ian Walker reports from Green Dragon :

We have just passed over a rocky ledge between two islands and I had my heart in my mouth as the depth dropped to 1.9 metres below the keel - I prayed the chart was accurate and breathed a sigh of relief as the depth shot back up. That's enough of those scares for one day. Other than that no real change out here in the Gulf of Finland.

We have good wind, flat water and the sun is shining. Believe it or not, we have still not done a sail change all leg! We were hoping this could be a new Volvo Race record if we maintained it to St Petersburg but unfortunately, the organisers have added an extra 30 mile triangle to the course which means we will need other sails. This is very unpopular with the crew as there is nothing worse than seeing the mileage to the finish increase - particularly on the last leg when all you want to do is finish. It is especially unpopular with Phil Harmer who, believe it or not, is flying straight out at 1900 to race in the 18ft skiff worlds in France on Sunday!
Anyway I don't suppose another 30 miles will kill us after doing 37,000. Hopefully we will hold off Delta Lloyd although they are gaining rapidly up behind and to windward.

Earlier he sent this:

We are still yet to crack sheets or change a sail on this leg as we sail hard on the wind to St Petersburg.

It doesn't look like that will change in the next day either. The only activity for the crew outside trimming and steering is of course stacking.

Sailing in a piece of water only 35 miles across and with many windshifts has lead to an abundance of tacks and the bad backs are reappearing as we have to repeatedly carry all the sails and gear from one side to the other.

It has been a good night for us though as the north side of the course has paid hugely. We were north on the Finnish coast and put many miles on the Russians whilst also passing Delta Lloyd. Other than that it is a pure drag race and we sit and watch as the leaders draw away and Delta Lloyd now is slowly pulling back closer to us. They are currently just under two miles dead astern.

It is a beautiful day with good wind and flat water and as I write this, we have a little over 100 miles of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 to go.

Gustav Morin reports from Ericsson 3 :

It is not only Magnus Olsson who is tired on Ericsson 3. It feels like everyone is taking every opportunity they can to get some sleep. We are running a standby watch system with three hours off and six hours on, but if there is not much happening some of the guys can go to sleep during the watch.

We have learned from the leg to Marstrand where everyone got extremely tired at the same time. But it feels a bit strange to come on deck when three guys are lying around sleeping.

I am also tired, having only slept two hours in my bunk since we left Stockholm and a couple of minutes on and off when I, like always, crash with the computer in my lap. I start to think about something to write and suddenly my thoughts just get more and more crazy and soon I’m off to never-never land. If I close my eyes and relax, it takes about 15 seconds to fall asleep.

The positions have not changed much the last couple of hours. Telefónica Black and Puma are still a couple of miles in front. Blue and Ericsson 4 around five miles up to windward.

Earlier this morning he sent this:

Before Puma tacked, they went closer to shore than any other boat. A couple of minutes ago we concluded that that was not the perfect move. We met them on port tack and from being behind, we were now a couple of hundred metres ahead, we now just had to duck them.

We have had dinner onboard and we are now staying awake with eating ridiculous amounts of chocolate and drinking coffee.
“Well, actually it’s not too bad at all. I started this leg with sleeping two hours, which is about twice as much as I slept the last leg, so I'm very happy, Richard Mason commented when he and his watch mate Martin Krite got up from their bunks a couple of hours ago.
Aksel Magdahl has not slept that much yet. One second he is behind the screens of the nav computers and the other second he is on deck with the portable screen. He is living his dream but even so, he has some issues with motivation.
“It is a bit crazy. This kind of job is the best I can think of and sailing this race is a lifetime opportunity, the coolest thing you can do in sailing if you ask me. Even so, I’m a bit fed up now. It would have been so much more fun if I could have a couple of months off and then do this leg. But that’s not the case and we just have to keep on struggling.

Bouwe Bekking reports from Telefonica Blue:

Telefónica Black did not get off the starting line, just outside Sandhamn, as well as we normally do. After the traditional ‘show off’ loop, reaching fast both ways, we left the massive spectator fleet behind together with many nice memories from this first Volvo Ocean Race stop in Stockholm.
With only Delta Lloyd trailing us at the last turning mark, we set off in a long upwind climb for Russia in a modest northeasterly breeze. All day we were struggling to catch up but our attempt to sail slightly low and fast did not really work out, even if it looked good for a while..
When we finally tacked, two miles west of the famous lighthouse Ristna, on the Estonian island Dago, we had only Dragon behind us, as we really could not impress anyone else with our boatspeed.
Since then we have tacked twice, on good shifts, but we on Telefónica Black are still a couple of miles behind the leading pack and are intensely looking for a passing lane...time will tell...
Our energetic foredeck crew is not feeling too well as an infected wisdom tooth is bothering him for a few days...not much Dr Nilson can do for him as he already is on antibiotics and painkillers...poor young man.....

Ken Read sent this from Puma:

We are racing again. I have to admit that this leg was a tough one to really get fired up about. That is until the starting gun went off of course. Then it is full on, no matter what is at stake.
Of course, I would be remiss without saying that the send off in Stockholm was as fantastic as the stay itself. There is clearly an air of finality surrounding this race right now. The leg awards banquet in Stockholm and the final exit to the racecourse really started to feel like the end is near. This adventure is almost over, but we still have one leg to do first. Although we simply have to finish this leg in order to get our second overall, you would never know it on the boat. The boys want to end in style.
There is clearly a lack of pressure aboard. That showed with a mistake when we sailed up to the coast of Estonia (another country that I don't think I would be ever mentioning in a sailboat racing blog), Estonia. Wild. Anyway, we approached with about a half-mile lead that we had gained off the starting line and held all the way across until reaching land. We had a decision to make, and decided to get into the coast and cut through a large rock pile to the beach in order to get to the expected right shift. Problem was, once we committed to go inside the rock pile the wind started to die slowly. No way out but to continue and we sailed in to lighter air while most the other boats gained about a mile and a half on us outside our line, and our friendly rocks.
So, we are now battling back and have crossed to yet another country. Finland. Tick another country box. Actually, it would be fun some day to retrace our path and see how many countries we have sailed in close proximity too. My guess is that it is a lot more that we would imagine. Estonia, Vietnam, China, Taiwan - countries that aren't exactly considered as being hosts to some of the world's highest profile racing events. No slight on any sailing in any of those countries, not in the least. I just don't have Vietnam Race Week on my calendar yet. As soon as this goes out, I am guessing that I will have an e-mail with the time and date of that event in my inbox.
Anyway, a long beat to Russia. This race wouldn't be complete without one more long beat. Nice flat water though. Very civilized sailing with no water on deck at all. The finish line can't come soon enough. There is some serious celebrating that needs to take place.

Roger Nilson reports from Telefonica Black:

Telefónica Black did not get off the starting line, just outside Sandhamn, as well as we normally do. After the traditional ‘show off’ loop, reaching fast both ways, we left the massive spectator fleet behind together with many nice memories from this first Volvo Ocean Race stop in Stockholm.
With only Delta Lloyd trailing us at the last turning mark, we set off in a long upwind climb for Russia in a modest northeasterly breeze. All day we were struggling to catch up but our attempt to sail slightly low and fast did not really work out, even if it looked good for a while..
When we finally tacked, two miles west of the famous lighthouse Ristna, on the Estonian island Dago, we had only Dragon behind us, as we really could not impress anyone else with our boatspeed.
Since then we have tacked twice, on good shifts, but we on Telefónica Black are still a couple of miles behind the leading pack and are intensely looking for a passing lane...time will tell...
Our energetic foredeck crew is not feeling too well as an infected wisdom tooth is bothering him for a few days...not much Dr Nilson can do for him as he already is on antibiotics and painkillers...poor young man.....