And then there were six

Volvo Ocean Race fleet struggles in light wind as MAPFRE and Alvimedica take fliers

And then there were six. It strikes us as unlikely that it will be worth salvaging Team Vestas Wind from the remote mid-Indian Ocean reef which claimed her at the weekend.

While yesterday's photo indicates that her keel is still attached to the boat, one wonders how long this will remain the case as the yacht is relentlessly pummelled against the reef. Maybe the boat will be left there and will become a landmark - a navigational aid even - in the same way as the hulks of WW2 Japanese aircraft are in some remote islands in the North Pacific. In the meantime our thoughts are with skipper Chris Nicholson and navigator Wouter Verbraak who no doubt will be wanting to crawl into a hole following this costly and horribly public navigational error.

Images courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

Meanwhile the race continues. Generally since the weekend the fleet has been having to deal with light to very light to non-existent wind conditions as they follow a northeasterly course to get through a light patch just south of the line between the Seychelles and the Chagos Archipelago. The lead trio fell into a hole yesterday afternoon before being able to resume their northeasterly course mid-evening with Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team alongside each other with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing technically leading, some seven miles to leeward off to the northwest

Making the race exciting is that Iker Martinez and new navigator Jean-Luc Nelias aboard MAPFRE on Sunday chose to split from the lead group, spearing off to the east. The Spanish team has stuck to its guns and this morning is some 150 miles to the southeast of the front trio. However heading even further away from the course than the leaders has cost MAPFRE miles to the finish - in fact at the 1840 sched yesterday MAPFRE had dropped to last place. But while they stopped yesterday, MAPFRE continued and she was able claw back 20 miles on the leaders, pulling back to 120 miles behind and sailing in more pressure - into 13 knots. It will be interesting to see if MAPFRE can pull off a 'buffalo girls' manoeuvre and sail around the outside of the leaders to the east. We suspect she's lost too much ground to manage this. 

At present the boats are sailing in the light winds being generated by a very weak area of low pressure off to their east. The wind is currently from the southeast but will veer into the south and then into the southeast the further north they sail. The GRIBs aren't being of great deal of help at this stage, but in terms of general trends - while it appears there has been slightly more pressure off the east, this looks set to reverse over the next 48 hours, so it may not just be MAPFRE looking at the possibility of a buffalo girls manoeuvre but also Team Alvimedica which since falling behind after they stood by Team Vestas Wind on Saturday night, is now taking a westerly option. Watch this space.

Yann Riou reports from Dongfeng Race Team:

Making the best of bad situation - no control and no long term strategy. Just speed. Its all that matters.

The wind should build bit by bit during the day, and then we can start to think about our position with respect to the Doldrums ahead of us. Until then, we’ve not been doing so badly, managing to come back up to Brunel with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing not so far away. The price to pay the guys have to bake under a very hot sun and stifling heat, trimming the sails constantly and squeezing every extra metre out of the tiny puffs of air that come across Dongfeng.

Dreaming of a cold beer!

More than 30°C in the shade. Little or no shade ! We do what we can to fight the heat. We avoid starting the engine to charge the batteries during the day., we try to create some movement of air by opening the hatches. The fans turn full time. But it has little effect. It insanely hot! And its just the start.

Matt Knighton reports from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:

As the deep blues and purples of the water contrasted the orange streaks in the sky, the sunrise over the Indian Ocean greeted a smiling Adil Khalid on the bow of Azzam. Keeping his body weight forward in light winds, Adil slept on the sail stack last night to help keep our speed up giving him a front row seat to the spectacular light show. However, on this particular morning, under his smile was an intense pride for his country - today, December 2nd, is UAE National Day.

“National Day started in 1971 when the 7 Emirates came together to become the UAE”, Adil explains. “If you look back and see the way Abu Dhabi has changed in 43 years it’s amazing. It’s a great thing for such a small country on the map to have grown so big.”

An accomplished Emirati sailor, this marks Adil’s second trip around the world as a crewmember on Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing. Wearing his traditional garb on-board to help keep cool in the beating heat of the tropics, today he can’t stop talking about the nation-wide party going on back home.

“People even spray paint their cars and their houses with the UAE flag. They celebrate in the streets; the schools have the day off. Everyone enjoys the day. There are parties and fireworks; families come together.”

When asked if he has any special plans for celebrating today with his fellow teammates as they navigate towards their Leg 2 finish in Abu Dhabi, Adil quickly replies, “Of course, it’s the UAE birthday. For sure I miss being there with my family and friends. Onboard, I’m sure all-day I’ll be talking about my country to the rest of the guys!”