Volvo Ocean Race - Team Alvimedica managed to keep leverage
by Volvo Ocean Race on 25 Apr 2015
April 22,2015. Leg 6 to Newport onboard Team Alvimedica. Day 03. Dave Swete,Alberto Bolzan,Mark Towill,and Charlie Enright sit in the cockpit as night approaches,shielded by the sail stack during naggingly wet upwind sailing conditions. Conditions remain largely the same for the third consecutive day of upwind sailing east and away from a chasing cold front. Amory Ross / Team Alvimedica
2014 - 15 Volvo Ocean Race - With the fleet in their lanes to the north since this morning and the split of Team Alvimedica 50 nm west of the others, I‘ve been basically staring at the tracker all day.
As a fan of this race, it feels good to witness moments like this when one of the teams puts their cards on the table and roll the dice.
Yes, I’m talking about Charlie’s Enright crew. They have taken a chance today and even though I know it will take a couple of days to see how their decision will play out, it's exciting to follow sked after sked.
And so, since the last Watch Producer report at 1900 UTC, the Turkish-American team has managed to keep 9.2 miles of leverage, meaning that they have lost only half of a mile in the last 12 hours.
Will Oxley, navigator on the black and orange boat said to the camera today that the question is “whether the increasing pressure by getting further east will outweigh the extra distance,” and the truth is that at the moment all the boats are in the same wind speed.
As for the group farther east, Mapfre, Team SCA and Team Brunel are neck and neck with less than 0.3 miles of separation.
Enjoy another day of tight racing in the South Atlantic!
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