Boat Blogs from Day 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race

by Various Volvo Ocean Race Competitors on 19 Oct 2008
Boat Blogs from Day 8, Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

TELEFÓNICA BLACK LEG ONE DAY 8: received 18.10.08 1147 GMT

Hi everyone

As you remember, we had a slight problem the other day with our chute... We thought we had more than a problem: that of the sail itself and the loss of miles if we couldn't get it repaired. Good.

Thanks to the legends sailing this boat we had it up again and the result is as it is now: getting closer and closer to the rest of the fleet. Just 14 miles behind TELEFÓNICA AZUL! Sailing as demons sail!!

Another problem we face is the Attack of the Flying Fish! Those sardines with wings get so surprised when they see us surfing down a wave at 20+ knots that they jump in every other direction and of course all the way through the boat! Imagine us ducking as in a shoot- out! $%**^!*!! Sardines! Ha ha!

Life on board goes in a smooth way, routine and shifts, perhaps only missing a couple more cookies and chocolate, but we must pay attention to our doctor's and trainers committee who are the ones who know how things go well, and the good thing is that we are eating and drinking very well, so that's good. Some say they are even getting fatter and fatter! Good!

Hugs from TELEFÓNICA NEGRO

Mikel Pasabant - MCM
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GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 8: received 18.10.08 1035 GMT

Greetings all from the Green Dragon

After week 1, the racing is still as close and as interesting as it was on day 1, which intense but the sailing has been great.

I should start at the beginning, thank you so much everyone involved the start. It was a great event and a real privilege to be a part of.

I emailed my fiancée Charlotte a few days ago, saying that it didn’t feel like the start of the Volvo Ocean Race until about 1 hour before we left, when this amazing feeling came over the village and we all started saying our goodbyes. It’s hard enough saying goodbye to Charlotte and her family; I can’t begin to imagine how it feels for our guys with young kids.....

The start was full of drama for us with gear failure, something that has never happened to us before. We just got another position report and we are slowly getting a bit back on the leaders which is nice to hear after a few days of not really knowing how we are positioned....

As for life onboard, the days are really flying by, which is good and the sailing really is magic. Everyone onboard is in really good spirits and gets on very well; I think it shows the quality of the crew as a group. Our only real worry has to be Neal MacDonald. He hurt his knee a few days ago which has been a concern, but he is being treated by medic Tom (Braidwood), following some great advice by doctor Tommo (Mark Thompson). It’s really great to have people like that literally at our finger tips. Neal also had a shocker the other day, wearing his wedding ring. It got stuck and cut his finger, not very badly, but enough to look slightly infected, swell up and force us to cut his ring off (sorry Lisa if you are reading this before he writes to you....) Apart from that, we have had the occasional attack from flying fish, hitting me a few times and whoever dares to stick their head above the stack!! The water is warmer and the temperature is getting hotter every day. Downstairs is a bit of a sweat box, which is good for the few of us athletically overweight!!!

Well guys, not much more to report, might go and have another one of our beautifully prepared meals and fill it full of flavour with everybody’s favourite, TABASCO!!!

Hope this finds you all well, and I’ll write to you again from the southern hemisphere!

Cheers
Phil Harmer – helmsman/trimmer

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DELTA LLOYD LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: received 18.10.08 1702 GMT

Day 7 Sat 18.10.08 1540hrs, 180nm South of Verdes, 5 knots boat speed, 13.7Knots wind speed, Sail Plan A3 spinnaker, Stay sail and Main.

Fleet is grouped between Dragon right of course and Delta Lloyd left of course with only 140nm between us and approx 16 miles in difference with last position report showing Dragon ahead, with the rest of the lead fleet bunched in the middle separated by only a few miles. Both the Dragon and Delta Lloyd are positioned to make a gain. Let’s wait and see.

Delta Lloyd 5th.position just made up +19 miles on leader and lost -9nm to Dragon, +19 on Russians, in last 3 hours.

Puma leading us by 70nm, E3 by 63nm, E4 by 36nm, Dragon by 16, Russians behind us by 21nm, Tela behind us by 48nm, Teln behind us by 54nm.

We await the next weather data, as we study a tropical storm approaching in the next 12hrs from the east. It’s 75 miles wide and heading straight for the fleet’s path. We await further data due at 1800hrs, but feel its too big to sail around. We are preparing for a busy night of sail changes, water, provisions food, likely sail positioning preparation for easy access, get crew fed and rested to have max energy for next 24 hrs. There could be big wins and losses in how the fleet manage this obstacle. We will have to wait and see. These storms suck up and disturb the direction of the wind. Let’s hope we get our timing right.

Crew all well with Husty (Ryan Houston). Cold has cleared up, Edwin’s (Edwin O’Connor) leg looks ok but we will monitor. Mat’s birthday (Matthew Gregory) with crew singing happy b.day was a good start to the day. Sander (Pluijm) the media crew caught all on camera. We ordered 9 different flavours of freeze dried food but due to our late entry, Deirdre (logistics manager) only received 4 flavours (3 chicken and1 beef) and we are having to be very imaginative while eating.

The has a soul of her own, she seems to know what she wants with even one extra knot of pressure and she off.

Good Day From Delta Lloyd

Ger O’Rourke - skipper

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ERICSSON 4 LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: Received 18.10.08 1447 GMT

We're a man down today after having to evacuate Tony Mutter off the yacht yesterday. His condition wasn't improving and after seeking medical advice from onshore, the decision was made to get him off.

As we were already reasonably close to the Cape Verde islands, it made for a convenient drop-off point. We organised to meet a fishing boat just off one of the islands. The wind didn't play ball very well though and we ended up fully drifting in 1 knot of wind. When we finally found the boat, Tony got in his survival suit and basically jumped overboard. Very sad for him but better than a full emergency in the middle of the Atlantic later on.

It is hard enough to sail these boats with 10 people and as we were preparing to get racing again, it became obvious that the next 2 weeks is going to be bloody tough without Tony.

It has been a great sail down for the last 4 days. Very funny to go so close to Lanzarote the other night. A few of us talked about popping into our old local pub 'McSorley's', and downing a 'quick six', but it was decided that it would be better if we continued racing.

A couple of us have developed a bad case of 'gunwhale bum' from the salt on the skin. Not a very good look at all and extremely uncomfortable. The need to wash with fresh water after a watch is critical otherwise it could get a bit out of hand.

We figured that we lost about 50 miles during our detour, so we are fighting on as best we can. As we have all seen, anything can happen in sailing so we are just trying to stay in touch with the pack and see how it all pans out.

It's fantastic to see Ericsson 3 battling it out with Team Puma at the front of the pack. Keep the heat on them boys!!

All good otherwise.

Phil Jameson
Ericsson 4
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TEAM RUSSIA LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: received 18.10.08 1820 GMT

Lighter winds give Mark Covell ( MCM)