Mapfre leading tight Volvo Ocean Race fleet heading into Day 3

by Richard Gladwell, NZL on 21 Apr 2015 Busted toilets and watermakers have been the order of the day for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet entering their third day at sea.

Light winds prevailed for the start an continued for the first hours at sea, before picking up to 13-15kts.

The herd mentality continues to afflict the fleet - which are still closely grouped as a result.

The fleet continue to sail as a herd, led by Mapfre (Xabi Fernandez), which has been the dominant boat on both Leg 4 and Leg 5.

Aboard Abu Dhabi, OBR Matt Knighton reports that: 'SCA is not using their FRO at all due to the damage it sustained in Leg 5. They’re compensating for bigger breeze with reefs in their Main. Dongfeng characteristically is favoring a larger sail plan. Mapfre has been using a jib all afternoon.'

A slow and gradual left hand shift on port tack has lifted the pack up 10º, as the try to make the eastern corner of the South American coastline.

Dongfeng has a real issue in the form of a broken water maker. The team is having to use the emergency water pump which is both time consuming and needs way too much effort for very little return.

On board Abu Dhabi a blocked toilet has caused different issues, but that has now been repaired, but not before a few litres of the smelly stuff made its way into the bilges.

Earlier the rest of the fleet, the light breeze has been prominent. The fleet continued to sail east with Mapfre in the lead. The fleet were all within 5 miles of each other, easily spotted in the horizon and on AIS range.

The race got away on Sunday after a painfully slow start, the fleet finally got going. Team Alvimedica led the way out of Itajai. The Turkish American team must be spurred on and fired up for a good result for this homecoming leg back to Newport, Rhode Island.

It was slow work northeast, moving more and more offshore and away from the land effect. At 22:00 UTC the fleet was dogged by some frustrating rain clouds that challenged some teams more than others.

SCA and Alvimedica fell foul of a shift that went against them, while Mapfre and Abu Dhabi's made the most of it stretching their lead North before tacking with the fleet east at around midnight.

All the teams are now sailing incredibly similar speeds East with only 0.2 of a knot separating the fastest and the slowest. There is still only 12 nm separating the fleet north to south and 8 nm east to west.

The fleet is not expecting much change in the conditions for the next 12 hours