Green Dragon takes the lead

Ian Walker and Ian Moore's tactical choice to go west pays dividends in the Volvo Ocean Race

Positions at 0410

Pos	Boat	Skipper	Lat	Long	Spd	24 hr	DTF	DTL
1	Green Dragon	Ian Walker	07,58.51N	030,39.21W	9.0	247	4077.4
2	Ericsson 3	Anders Lewander	07,49.61N	028,00.97W	4.0	185	4108.7	31.3
3	Telefonica Blue	Bouwe Bekking	07,54.25N	027,58.13W	11.0	261	4114	36.6
4	Team Russia	Andreas Hanakamp	07,48.58N	027,39.37W	9.0	252	4115.6	38.2
5	Puma	Ken Read	08,41.35N	029,37.13W	2.0	152	4130.8	53.4
6	Telefonica Black	Fernando Echavarri	08,23.58N	028,27.66W	8.8	253	4131.9	54.5
7	Ericsson 4	Torben Grael	08,54.63N	029,43.87W	7.3	181	4142.4	65
8	Delta Lloyd	Ger O'Rourke	07,57.34N	026,25.81W	2.0	211	4154.1	76.7

While they may not have been putting themselves in the spotlight of the form guide prior to the start, a bold tactical option to dig out to the west has reaped dividends for Ian Walker's Green Dragon.

On Friday after passing the Cape Verde Islands Green Dragon gybed further out to the west than her competitors and since has been maintaining this position. Over the weekend this tactic has generally allowed her to sail faster than her rivals and over the course of Sunday was also making a better angle down the course, able to sail just west of due south while the boats to the east could only make a course just to the east of due south.

As a result at around 1430 yesterday Walker's Chino-Irish backed team where Ian Moore is calling navigating, drew level with Ken Read's Puma and has since wound out her lead. This morning she is ahead by 31 miles.

“West is best they say and we’ve had to give up a lot to get out here,” commented Ian Moore yesterday. “We all talked about it and so often it pays, but it was pretty hard watching the other guys turn south towards the Doldrums."

Ian Walker fleshed out their position: “What a difference a decent sleep makes. After a long spell studying the weather files with Ian last night I have just had six hours unbroken sleep. The little travel fans we have put up down below are really helping with the heat at the back of the boat, where there is no air circulation. Ian covered for me as one of us has to watch the radar so that we avoid the towering rain clouds at night. Now it is his turn to catch up and he is snoring like a freight train. Even better than such a good sleep is to wake up and find our strong push to the west seems to be paying off. It is still early days but we have gained 20 degrees of bearing on most of the fleet and we still have 120 miles of leverage. It would take them a long time to get to our line and they would be a long way behind us if they tried. This means that we should be the furthest boat west through the Doldrums, which has been our plan all along. Now all we have to do is hope that is right! We have searched every available piece of information to back up this decision and Damian’s experience is also playing a big part - he has crossed the Doldrums in this direction 10 times and last time through on the Barcelona Race he lost 60 miles by being 25 miles too far East. That is fresh in his mind.

"Right now we are sailing straight down the course (205 degrees) in 9 knots of breeze under A3 spinnaker and genoa staysail and taking the chance to fix some things, dry the sails and clean up a bit. After the Doldrums it will be upwind for a considerable time. We are also trying to work hard on hygiene as even the smallest cuts and scratches can get infected quickly in this heat. Nobody wants to get spotty botty or saltwater rashes so cleanliness is the watchword and it is wet wipes, talcum powder and sudocreme all round - I should point out though that it is now day 8 and Neal hasn’t even opened his kit bag yet while some of us are on our second or third pair of undies! Animal (Andrew McLean) is refusing to change his clothes until after King Neptune’s visit which is little more than a day away now."



At present the boats are in the thick of the mixed calms and squalls of the Doldrums and as the satellite wind radar image above shows, they still have some way to go before they break through to the southeasterly trades marking the way to the Equator (at the bottom of the image above) and the South Atlantic. It should be remembered that this was the decisive point of the first leg of the last Volvo where ABN AMRO One got ahead on the approach to the Doldrums and proceeded to lead all the way into Cape Town (ok, she was a bit faster too...)

The image above indicates that the Ians on Green Dragon have picked a good spot to get through the Doldrums, verified as most of yesterday afternoon both Puma and Ericsson 4 put in a costly gybe to get west to their position too. They gybed back to the south at around 2000 last night, but by this time Puma was 19 miles astern and Ericsson 4 55 miles behind. Both boats are still to the east of Green Dragon's track.

Perhaps most interesting is that while there was a slight restart off the Cape Verdes, the restart between the chasing pack has genuinely occurred over the last 24 hours with Telefonica Blue now back up to third place while Telefonica Black, a resounding last after her disastrous Canary Islands tactics recovered to sixth. Out to the east Delta Lloyd is clearly suffering in the Doldrums and the last data back from the boat shows her to be only making 2 knots.

Ken Read reports from Puma

To give you a few interesting anecdotes from The Monster today.

People ask all the time how much work there actually is to do when on watch. Well, I can report that I heard several today mention the fact that the light air is a reprieve from grinding the spinnaker down every single wave for five of the first seven days of this race.
Work is an understatement, with only four on deck a decent percentage of the time, you are steering, trimming or grinding. Not a sole sitting on the rail thinking about beer and pizza. Actually maybe not, you can get in a quick beer and pizza thought in when grinding, and not really look like you are day dreaming.

Anyway, the grinding is even more intense than most day races, because the apparent wind speed differences and the apparent wind angle difference is so great before, during and after a wave that you have to ease and trim literally on every single wave. Hard on the bodies, and hard on the ear drums below. The easing of a sheet that is as loaded as these sheets are - is deafening. On every single wave! Especially if Salty is trimming. He has a knack for easing two inches whether he needs it or not. Just enough to send a shudder and scream through the interior, piercing the eardrums. We have spoken about it and he just smiles. My guess is that he doesn't change his ways in the near future.

As we approach the middle of the earth, how hot does it really get? Hot, and we aren't even to the hottest part yet. Really hot. A couple of us were doing a few little sail maintenance touch-ups today and to call it rivers of sweat running off of you is a minor understatement. The water maker is a value that we could not do without and seems to get run overtime down here. We are constantly preaching drinking water. If you don't you develop hangover-like symptoms pretty quick. Not that I have those symptoms often when on dry land, but I have been told.

The battle goes on against the fleet spread wide across the entry to the doldrums. Actually we had a day today surrounded by squalls in which the Volvo veterans fondly told us rookies "welcome to the doldrums--and if this isn't it - then we are really close". Can't wait for them to say "welcome to the south east trades".

From on board Ericsson 4 Joao Signorini reports:

One week after the start and a lot of different feelings on board. After an intense race with Puma for the lead of the leg, where at some stages both boats had just a few metres from each other, we had the call from Volvo doctors that Tony Mutter (helmsman and sail coordinator), had to come off the boat, as his knee infection was not getting better. We changed our course to Cape Verde, as it would be Tony’s last chance get off the boat before Noronha. We lost a few hours dropping Tony to a motor boat and then went back to the race.

Later came the message that Tony arrived safe at Cape Verde and our team doctor was already with him. It was a sad moment on board, as everybody was worried about Tony's health and that we were losing a very important crew member, but it was the right decision, otherwise he could be in risk.

Right now we are approaching the equator with not many miles from the leg leader. It’s been very warm inside the boat. Yesterday we had our first big cloud with intense sails change and a lot of rain that gave us the opportunity to have a shower.

We are losing ground to all boats which is not good. All the fleet is still very close and we are trying to get the best points at the scoring gate of Noronha.


Andreas Hanakamp reports from Team Russia

It is getting very hot here inside the boat, I am wet and sticky in our navstation trying to pick a way through the doldrums. Wouter, our navigator and meteorologist on board came up with some good analysis and we made a plan we trust so far. It seems other people have similar plans as the fleet generally converges between 027.30 and 028.00 W.

The sun is really high already, must be at approximately 73 degrees at noon, just a guess as our sun tables are vacuum packed to keep them dry. It is still a rule of the race to have a sextant, table and an accurate time piece on board, just in case something happens with the GPS system.

We all look very much forward for the first rain cloud to pass over us to take a shower, the last decent shower was more than a week ago in Alicante.

Simon Fisher reports from Telefonica Blue :

Today has been a good day on Telefónica Blue. With the wind moderating and our spinnaker repaired we have once again been able to sail closer to our full potential. For the last few days with the sail problems we have had it has been a bit like boxing with one hand tied behind your back. Luckily though we didn't go down - we are still in the ring and now fighting back. Better speeds have eased the frustrations of the last few days and now we can look forward to what lies ahead.

Gone now are the big waves and nose diving, the sailing is now more subtle, teasing the best speeds possible out of the boat as we edge south into softening winds and eventually the Doldrums. As I write here in the nav station I keep one eye on the radar, just in case of any clouds that may be waiting to trip us up. It is approaching midnight GMT and the moon has yet to rise so it is hard to see what is coming ahead on deck.
Despite being in the tropics it is grey and overcast outside. The remnants of the last tropical wave to pass across the Doldrums has covered everything around us in a layer of cloud. It will be our job over the next few days to pick our best way through all of this as we head south. Each update of the weather is keenly awaited to see what is happening in this difficult area. We have a few miles still to best refine our course and try to best line our self up for a good doldrums passage.

Despite the clouds though things are getting warmer. Inside the boat is getting pretty hot now and still humid from the wetness of the last few days. This is taking its toll on a few of the boys who are starting to get rashes. Luckily with Jono's (Jonathan Swain) medical training and many years of Whitbread and Volvo experience, he is making sure everyone is taking care of themselves properly and will have them fixed as quickly as possible.

With the weather arriving on my computer shortly it is now back to the navigating again, checking on the doldrums, checking over the weather maps, satellite pictures, grib files and quickscat images... basically anything I can get my hands on to help best guess what lies ahead.