Volvo OR - Latest video, images and stories Day 7, Leg 3
by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com/nz 17 Dec 2017 14:01 PST
18 December 2017
The latest video and images and blogs from the boats on Day 7 of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race as the boats slide past the Kerguelen Islands, and start chasing the edge of the Ice Exclusion Zone, set by organisers in response to iceberg reports and tracking.
Filed at 2100hrs UTC on December 17, 2017
4 hours ago
Latest update from skipper Bouwe Bekking on Team Brunel:
I said it many times before, how quickly do you forget the "bad" days. Very, very fast: today was totally opposite from the last few days, bright sunshine and a gentle 15-20 knots of breeze. There was one downside, we had to gybe a fair bit, so no regular sleep for the off watch. But today nobody minded this, as well a good chance to catch up on stories.
But let me first talk about our patient, Annie, still bunk bound, but moving over to the opposite side by herself after a gybe, to bring her weight in the correct position. It is still very painful, but let’s hope it gets better. Not much our "doctors" can do about it, besides giving her pain relievers.
Kyle was in a great mood, while standing at the helm without a shirt on just to prove he is a tough Aussie, he all of a sudden blurted out then he knew why he was so tough: he said his grandma was a 100% cloggy, who emigrated to Aussie and is following the race closely! So we have a third Dutchie onboard :-)
One person came to our minds when we saw a huge Albatross flying by and checking us out: the late Peter Dorien. With Capey and myself "Spike"raced on Movistar in the Volvo Ocean Race. He died many years ago in a freak accident, slipping in the bathroom. He was, first of all, a family man, but then also his dedication for the sport and in particular, his crazy stories about the Sydney to Hobart race, plus his great sense of humour makes it that we never forget Spike.
cheers,
Bouwe
8 hours ago
Dongfeng Race Team OBR Martin Keruzore on the ordeal of constant gybing in the deep south:
“Guys we are gybing!”
The sentence, the punishment even, of this string of words, is something that everyone onboard has been dreading for some time. Day or night, this short phrase which is yelled with both force and conviction, coloured by a French accent, has had a very bad habit of coming out of Pascal’s mouth every two hours for the past 48 hours or so.
I’ll leave you a bit of time to digest the numbers on that, but yes, we’ve racked up a shed load of gybes. So why inflict that on us? There must be a reason looking at our navigator biting his nails the whole time, his eyes riveted to his screen trying to decipher a type of multi-coloured chart, split in two by a little horizontal line.
This ridiculous line is the source of all our suffering, though, as it symbolises the ice gate: an exclusion zone put in place by the Race Committee to prevent us from sailing any further south at the risk of smacking into a block of ice. Why would you want to head south you’re going to ask me, down into the cold, grey depths? No, it’s not because we’re missing Brittany in December, but rather because to the south there is more breeze so you can go faster.
As a result, we are gybing every two hours to stay as close to the imaginary line as we can so we retain as much wind as possible and thus make landfall in the land of the kangaroos as quickly as possible, and before Christmas, I hope.
This long and tiresome gybing procedure leads to a multitude of tasks orchestrated by Charles and Pascal and then carried out by the whole crew. Seven sailors on deck busy themselves with preparing for the manoeuvre and shifting the unused sails from one side of the boat to the other, or stacking as we call it.
So what of the two remaining crewmen? Well, they stay in the warm down below, but they’ve got plenty to keep them occupied too. The ten bags of food, personal gear and other toolboxes don’t move around on their own like in the famous Mary Poppins film, that would be too much to hope for. There are various techniques for stacking the gear down below.
Initially, everything’s calm, ordered and nice and tidy; expert Tetris players our sailors. After a dozen or so manoeuvres of this style, you can sense the fatigue and the nerves setting in, especially if you’re fast asleep or downing a good Chicken Masala when the call comes up.
That’s when the lightest bags develop wings and literally reach the other side of the boat without touching the ground. The initial game of Tetris is then transformed into a muddle of all kinds of bags, and you end up with a bag of food for day seven in the bilges with the bag of spare electronics.
This entire tortuous ‘pre-gybe’ stacking procedure can take up to a few dozen minutes according to the sea state and the wind conditions, but one thing for sure is that it’s never my idea of fun and it’s far from over.
Right, I’ll leave you to it as I can see Pascal’s beginning to warm up in the adjacent office so I’ll start packing away my things just in case... "Guys we are gybing!"
Have a nice evening,
Martin
9 hours ago
From navigator Joan Vila onboard MAPFRE:
As we skirt the amended ice exclusion zone north of the Kerguelen, a change of weather pattern has happened, and strong WSW winds have moderated under 20KT while shifting NW.
We have been in visual sight of Dongfeng Race Team from the end of our night and all this morning, with both throwing gybes along the ice limit line, as winds are weak further to the N. From early this morning we have so far done 17 gybes in less than 11 hours.
Currently, the weather is sunny, and conditions have warmed up with both sea surface and air temperatures increasing. A nice break that allowed us to dry out stuff, before conditions get windier again tomorrow and deck gets splashed by water spray again.
All is good on board and morale is high, especially now we are back in touch with the leader.
JV
21 hours ago
From onboard Turn the Tide on Plastic:
One week done and we are feeling the effects of the weather. The team are a little wet, cold and tired. However, the wind has had an overall trend to reduce.
The wind average is 26 knots, and the gusts are of 30 knots, and the boat feels slow compared to what we have been in. The sleeping is good as the sea state has moderated quickly compared to what we had just a few hours ago. But the team want more speed.
We are now trying to push hard not only to catch the guys in front but also to stay ahead of a high pressure. That will make a huge difference.
So it feels like it will be 43 days to get to Melbourne so we would like to say 'chapeau' to Francois Gabart, who we believe from our remote location will have successfully circumnavigated the globe solo in just 43 days, smashing the previous record by 6 days and only 3 days longer than the fully crewed record. Awesome!
We would like some of his speed for the second half of leg 3, please.
Dee and Team TTTOP
MAPRE is ready to gybe:
Dear Southern Ocean,
Wow, that was quite the unexpected shower this morning! You caught me before I could close the hatch screen at the moment we went bow down into a wave and sent the water down below crashing down on me, soaking me from head to toe, even filling my boots up.
I wasn’t too pleased at first but was quickly reminded that not many people have had the chance to have a shower by you.
You’ve pushed the crew hard today and offered up some beautiful sailing.
It sounds like the grand finale of this epic party is coming up over the next 48 hours with a 20+ gybing party.
Our skipper says the crew is strong and ready. Are you?
MAPFRE
Dec 16 2017 1:01 PM
From onboard Turn the Tide on Plastic:
Out of habit, I am writing at a similar time of day as far as the boat is concerned. This started off as the middle of the night. Now, on day 6, it is just turning to dawn.
Driving is getting easier now the helm can see the waves. Before it was a case of the waves coming unexpected and taking us for a ride, a little out of control. The wind range is from 20 to 34 knots of wind, so we feel under powered then over powered and hope we are meeting a happy medium. We have furled the FR0 a few times for squalls of sleet and strong winds and then deployed when we felt we were clear again only to be met with 38 knots gusts and a gentle broach.
I sit at the nav station fully dressed in a life jacket ready to jump and help on deck to grind when needed and a couple of times I have made it to my bunk and been undressed in my sleeping bag - heaven.
There are a couple of sailors who since putting their drysuits on a couple of days ago have yet to be out of them. I do not think Liz has been out of her boots and drysuit for a couple of days and has definitely not slept in her sleeping bag for a while. The change of ice exclusion zone will help that.
We will be going close to a high-pressure area and having to gybe a small corridor of breeze to stay in some pressure but out of the prohibited area. Before we get there though we have some straight line sailing in decreasing pressure after a final gybe coming up.
Hopefully, all my team will get a full off watch in a sleeping bag!
Dee
Dec 16 2017 12:31 PM
Further correspondence from MAPFRE to their muse:
Dear Southern Ocean,
You have kept us on our toes over the last 24 hours giving us an intense and exciting evening last night full of squalls up to 40kts.
We have been working around the clock to keep up with you and everything you are throwing at us.
Man, you are strong! You managed to knock one of us off the helm yesterday and have accidentally deployed 3 of our lifejackets, safely, causing a good laugh or two.
Today you have pushed us hard with many manoeuvres and gybes in the middle of the ice exclusion zone, which has been a good test for the boat and the crew.
We are grateful you continue to honour us with the presence of Albatross.
You have delivered everything that you promised and we sense more is to come in the night, for that is when you are truly awake.
We are dressed and ready for you!
MAPFRE
Dec 16 2017 11:56 AM
From Simon Fisher onboard Vestas 11th Hour Racing:
If the first few days of the leg were all about the anticipation of the low and getting to the Southern Ocean, then the last couple of days have been all about living and breathing it. Conditions have been pretty full on to say the least.
As the barometer fell and the low approached so did the air and sea temperature, and we quickly found ourselves in the conditions that the Southern Ocean are famous for.
After the passage of the front which saw gusts of almost 50 knots, we commented on how wild the conditions were, but over the last 36 hours, we have quickly become accustomed to sailing in more than 40 knots downwind, with one gust topping out at 53 knots in the midst of a hail storm. 30-35 knots has become to feel quite moderate these days which is a measure of how windy it has been.
Despite the sea and air temperature hovering around 7-8 degrees and the wind still blowing hard, morale on board is good. We are walking the fine line between performance and safety, trying to respect the conditions but continue to race hard and so far we seem to be rewarded by our commitment. For sure the red boats in front have been able to get a little richer by virtue of their lead, but we are hanging onto their coat-tails less than 100 miles back whilst working hard on stretching on the fleet behind.
Every few hours we have to gybe which, from start to finish, is a 40-minute process but it is worth the effort to stay in the stronger wind and in phase with the shifts. However, we are all looking forward to the point where we can sail straight for a little while and catch up on some sleep.
For now, though it is back to the computer, plan the next gybe and then back up on deck for more action.
Cheers,
Si Fi.