Rationing, tenacity and boredom -Volvo boat news

by Various Volvo Ocean Race competitors on 16 Dec 2008
Latest Volvo Ocean Race news from the boats contesting Leg 2 from Cochin, India to Singapore.

TEAM RUSSIA

Tuesday morning, 65 hours into leg 3 and still we can see some of our competitors. In fact for most of this leg we have been locked in battle with Ericsson 3. As Wouter likes to put it, this is a ‘street fight’. Typical of the Indian Ocean we have unreliable forecasts and we have to sail by the seat of our pants. Every time we separate from Ericsson 3 there is nervousness onboard, as confident as we may be in our reading of the situation, you just never know what is going to be thrown at you next! We seem to have changed between the genoa and code zero tens of times already, as the wind strength rather annoyingly, hovers permanently around that crossover. Thankfully right now we are several miles clear ahead of Ericsson 3 with the potential for a great position report relative to Green Dragon too. Delta Lloyd right now are suffering some of the same luck we had on leg 2 and are well behind, so in general we are happy with things so far.

Our new bowman for this leg Scott Gray is fitting in well as expected, although having lost one of our precious food bowls, he then proceeded to throw away a whole roll of loo paper. He may find himself short of a t-shirt or two should things get tight in that department later on. With a huge renewed focus amongst the crew, all idle chit chat is strictly restricted to off watch and this now focuses on the great debate, will we make it in for Christmas?!

Personally I’m not feeling too confident but then again I don’t have flights booked home or family coming out so it’s not quite such a concern for me! Unfortunately my dog Shackleton couldn’t get a visa for Singapore in time!
Anyway, as usual I have a few small running repairs onboard to make so I’d better go. Thanks for all the messages of support via our team website (http://www.teamrussia.org), please keep them coming. Fingers and toes crossed as we try to reel the leaders back in, now 25 miles ahead.

Cheers, Nick Bubb, Watch Captain

'Max daggerboard down please!' This rare call in the race so far marks the beginning of the 1000 NM beat to the top of Sumatra. To give you an idea of just how long a beat that is, it is as far as Miami to New York, slightly shorter than Sydney to Auckland or from Holland to the very most southern tip of Italy. Wow, that is more than a two-day drive!

It is not like we haven’t been warned though. The statistics from the weather studies were daunting when we first got them. Whereas previous Volvo Ocean Races have been mainly a downwind and reaching trip around the planet, this edition we are in for a good beat(ing). Both this leg and the next leg stick out like a sore thumb with this one being the light to medium upwind stretch and the next leg to China the big breeze beat.

So the daggerboards that have been mostly dead weight so far in the race are now getting a chance to do their bit. Codes zero’s are max trimmed in, and I don’t think we will see the traveller much below centreline over the next days.

Getting the last percentages out of the boat is going to be crucial, and there is no better reference on how we are doing than the other boats. Fortunately we have both Green Dragon and Ericsson within sight. As the conditions are still highly variable, changing gears well is where we can make the biggest gains. So we have the hand bearing compass and binoculars out to judge how we are doing. 'This high mode works well.' 'Little gain here with some more traveller up.' 'Nice work guys, the boat feels well balanced now.' The speed team circle of the trimmers and driver is doing a great job and by the looks of things they are going to be busy the next days!

As for us in the nav station, little differences in wind direction and wind speed have a large impact on our progress. Much more so than with the high speed reaching and downwind sailing that we have done in the previous legs.
Over the next days the crucial question is when to tack north. It is clear that there is consistently is more wind up there in the Bay of Bengal, but we want to find a good opportunity get there. Go further east to get that better right hand shift, or go earlier to get to the stronger wind first. It will be all to play for once we get clear of the second Sri Lanka waypoint.

Wouter Verbraak, Navigator
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ERICSSON 3 LEG THREE DAY 4 QFB: received 16.12.08 0932 GMT

'How big chance is it to get two black and then one red in roulette?' 'What is the average speed if you go 50 km/h to Gothenburg from Stockholm and then back in 100 km/h?'

You can tell when Magnus Olsson is bored. Or, at least, restless. He comes up with all kinds of questions and smiles while waiting for an answer. If you for once answer correctly, you can be sure that he comes back with another one that you can’t answer.

Talking about roulette, that is a bit how this leg feels. Easy to say when you are behind, I know, but I do think it is a bit is about luck. Yet we haven’t been lucky and we haven’t sailed very well.

Last night we were working hard with stacking and trying to tack with the shifts, but it hasn’t paid off. The last scheds has not been very good, probably because the boats in front got out from the current before us. It has been quite extreme ever since we passed the first waypoint, more than 36 hours ago. It peaked at 3.5 knots in our nose!

But I think that we are in the groove now. We have come out of the current and are sailing in 10 knots of fairly steady breeze, doing 12 knots of boatspeed. I hope that it is our turn to use the ‘bungee-effect’, that the others stop in lighter air and we get the chance to catch up and get a restart.

Gustav Morin - MCM

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ERICSSON 4 LEG THREE DAY 4 QFB: received 16.12.08 0857 GMT

It has been a pretty slow going trip so far. We might as well have left all our moderate to heavy sails on the beach for this leg!

The last 36 hours has been especially painful trying to get around the exclusion zone south of Sri Lanka. The current has been against us for a long time, up to 3.5 knots at times. When you are only doing four knots of boatspeed anyway, it makes for painfully slow progress. We have been trying to work out ETAs and it can be quite scary!

Food has already been rationed as we are expecting to take a few days longer. Spirits are good onboard. We are still having a bit of a laugh when it's appropriate. Ryan has been copping a serious bagging over his little rash situation. There have been many Ericsson 4 laws broken while he struggles with the rash. Nudity down below has featured more than once! Poor little b****r probably just wants us to leave him alone so he can deal with the problem quietly on his own.

It hasn't been too hot yet. The guys are still running their bunkside fans red hot though. It can be very tough when they break down. Diesel and water are getting used up very quickly. The diesel because of all the keel movements in the light air, and the water trying to keep everyone hydrated. You just can't drink enough in these conditions. If you need a drink, it's too late, you're already dehydrated.

Since writing this message, the breeze has built and we are on course again at 10 knots. Thank God for that. It will be interesting to see how long the puff hangs in for this time!

Phil 'Blood' Jameson
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GREEN DRAGON LEG THREE DAY 4 QFB: received 16.11.08 0808 GMT

If there was a prize for tenacity then I think my crew deserve it. We do not have the speed of the Ericsson, Telefónica or Puma boats and it is not easy to see them putting miles on us whenever we are near them. All we can do is continue to squeeze every ounce of speed we can out of the Dragon and work hard on our steering, trimming a