India ahoy

Dongfeng Race Team extends ahead in the Volvo Ocean Race

The Volvo Ocean Race six have spent the weekend closing on the southern tip of India, passing overnight between there and the Maldives, to their west. Some manoeuvring has been taking place on the race course. Yesterday morning leader Dongfeng Race Team let both the second and third-placed boats Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing spear off to the south without covering them. This has since left Charles Caudrelier's team furthest east, enabling her to sail a fraction fewer miles but at the expense of sailing in slightly lighter breeze as the boats have headed southeast.

The entirely fleet remains well south of the great circle - at the latest sched the closest is Dongfeng Race Team some 120+ miles from it, while of the lead trio Team Brunel is an additional 34 miles away off to the southwest (to leeward in the present northeasterly wind). Conditions may be uncomfortable on board with the wind on the beam but is fast. If yesterday boats speeds were typically below 10 knots, overnight (UTC) conditions have built slowly and since around 0230 UTC this morning, Dongfeng Race Team has been making 16-18 knots in 20 knots, that has been backing into the NNE. 

Image below courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

Down to leeward Team Brunel and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing appear to have been experiencing similar conditions and are presumably taking a more offshore route to avoid falling into the lee of mountainous Sri Lanka (at present Dongfeng is 155 miles WSW of Galle on the southwestern tip of Sri Lanka).

All of this is making the Franco-Chinese team looks very good position-wise - by our calcuation in terms of Distance to Finish, they are currently leading Team Brunel by 33 miles with Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing a further 3.5 miles back. MAPFRE holds fourth, 49 miles off the lead, 6.5 miles ahead of Team Alvimedica and Team SCA 80 miles from first now.

Over the next 48 hours, the boats look set to fall into lighter more variable northeries to the south of Sri Lanka, the wind generated by a weak depression currently centred over the northern tip of Sumatra (which the fleet must pass to reach the Malacca Strait). At some point they will come up on to an easterly heading crossing the mouth of the Bay of Bengal to get to the next mark of the course - Pula U We, off the northern tip of Sumatra (currently around 1050 miles up the race track for Dongfeng). Unfortunately by Wednesday night the weak depression has formed a trough along a NW-SE axis. Then on Thursday the wind disappears altogether...before Friday when the wind is currently forecast to fill in from the east (on the nose) on the north side of the race track.

Francisco Vignale reports from MAPFRE:

We finally got into the funneled wind between Sri Lanka and India. We got wet again. The wind started picking up at night little by little and we peeled from MH0 to FR0 and then to a J1.
The breeze went from 12 up to 18 steady knots. The sea got bigger as well and the waves started washing the deck. We changed our shorts and long sleeved t-shirts and got in our watergear again.
“It’s good the wind finally kicked in, we’ll get more opportunities to catch the boats in front”, says Ñeti as he trims the main sail.
The water is warm so being on deck it’s not a problem, the warm waters of the Indian Ocean really make you wish you could have a bath, and so does the sun big and high up in the sky.

We all are in a really good mood, and Rafa plays jokes. “I had forgotten what it feels like to sail in 15 knots wind," he says, as we push to get the boat going as fast as we can.

Besides, today we have Pasta al Pesto for lunch. The guys are really excited and anxious about it and can’t wait to have the boat’s best second course.

Amory Ross reports from Team Alvimedica

I could stay on deck all day, and I know the guys share the same sentiment. We have wind for the first time this leg, real wind—18, 19, 20 knots—and the first waves over the bow. The sun is shining. The water’s warm and the sailing’s glorious.

It reminds us of why we’re here: to have fun and go racing, and the feeling of being out there in the sun, in the water, grinding down MAPFRE on the horizon - it is one that you don’t want to end. It’s completely refreshing, particularly after more than a week of tryingly light and difficult conditions.

But with new conditions come new challenges, especially when it’s been so long since we’ve sailed in them. The setup of the boat today, in heavy air mode, is completely different to the setup since leaving Abu Dhabi. We need to remember all of the things we do differently in 19 knots: the outrigger positions, the internal stack position, when to reef and when to change sails. In a one-design class it’s these kinds of details that can make the biggest differences.

The stronger winds we’re currently experiencing are courtesy of the channel between India and Sri Lanka. It’s what we call an acceleration, or the funnel effect where winds speed up as they pass through a gap in the mountains. As we round the corner of Sri Lanka into the Bay of Bengal, this wind unfortunately recedes and soon we’ll find ourselves drifting again, once more in need of a recalibration.