Dongfeng well ahead as Volvo Ocean Race fleet crossing Bay of Bengal
by Rob Kothe and the Sail-World Team on 15 Jan 2015
Day 10, the team come through the wind shadow in no time at all and now have a 40+ nautical mile on the fleet. Still leading, Charles Caudrelier made the right decision after all - Volvo Ocean Race 2014-14 Sam Greenfield / Volvo Ocean Race
With the fleet now well out of the wind shadow of the Sri Lankan mountains and heading for Sumatra Indonessia and the Straits of Malacca, the Dongfeng guys have begun to extend their solid lead. Last night they were 34 nautical miles ahead of Team Brunel, that lead extended to 42.5 miles.
While the Chinese were last night gapping the fleet, she was 46 miles ahead of the Brunel boat was six miles ahead of MAPFRE with Abu Dhabi racing less than two miles back. Another six miles back to Alvimedica. There is only 12 miles between second and fifth. Team SCA is still the tail gunner, some 45 miles in arrears.
In recent hours Dongfeng Race Team have been going 10.5kts in 8-9 knots of wind, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 10.6Kts in 6.5 knots of wind.
In the the middle pack have made small gains with Team Brunel and MAPFRE averaging 8.8kts over 3 hours, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing 8.7kts, and Team Alvimedica 8.4kts.
They have all taken between two and three miles out of Dongfeng's seemingly unassailable lead (7.8kts over 3 hours) with the girls on Team SCA holding on at 7.9kts.
Team SCA are also in the furthest right wind which is why they are struggling to match the VMG of the boats slightly further ahead, although conversely Dongfeng Race Team are in the furthest left wind which again is not paying for their routing plan.
Two high pressure systems are sandwiching the fleet as the wind steadily decreases down to around 6-8kts.
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