VOR Boat Mail - Day 7- ABN 1&2; Pirates; movistar
by Various on 9 Jan 2006
Sunsets aboard Volvo Open 70 ABN AMRO TWO on day6 Leg 2 Cape Town to Melbourne ©Gerd Jan Poortman
Volvo Ocean Race
http://www.volvooceanrace.com
From: ABN AMRO ONE LEG TWO DAY 7
Sent: 8 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER sent: 08 January 2006 20:50
You would think that with the day that we have had sched wise that it would be all roses on board, the fact of the matter is I am probably writing this the most stressed out I have been in the whole race.
We are teetering on the front edge of this cold front which is the reason for the nice gains, but the conditions here are quite quickly getting worse and we go from not having quite enough sail up, as we are working hard to try and keep this missile under control, and then off she goes roaring down a wave at 30 plus knots.... I mean the boat is in perfect control, as long as all is going well, but we have done some jumps at the end of some of these waves that would make Evil Knievel proud, and it will only take one really bad one and for sure damage will follow.
So I sit here typing to you guys with that sick feeling in my stomach just out of worry. I know this could be the windiest night of the leg and so we are doing a lot to throttle back. It's like thinking your safe on your bike without brakes because there are no hills, then you turn a corner in the middle of a pitch black night and remember that you live in San Francisco!!
3.5 points are waiting for us now just 550 odd miles away, if we can keep this thing in one piece and get to the gate first, at the pace we are doing right now, that's less then a day away, but not if I have got anything to do with it...
Fingers crossed
Cheers
Mike
From: ABN AMRO 2 LEG TWO DAY 7
Sent: 8 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER 08 January 2006 13:39
Hi There,
Life has been pretty frustrating for the last day or so, we have been battling with light to moderate air now for what feels like an absolute eternity. With the breeze shifting every couple of hours and constantly changing in strength we are averaging a sail change every couple of hours this means dragging everyone out of their bunk and up on deck to do the sail change.
The conditions outside have continued to deteriorate as well there is now constant heavy drizzle, thick fog and the temperature continues to drop despite our relatively northern latitude. The net result is a boat full of tired wet people bored with the light air! Not to mention a navigator with slightly more grey hair than he started with having done nothing but worry about the weather for what feels like forever. All this wetness and tiredness would all be quite bearable if we were hurtling down wind at twenty knots but instead we are plodding along at a rather more sedate pace.
Thus we get to the real reason of all our frustration. 24 hours ago things were going well, we had got to within a mile of the Pirates and were looking good to pass them on by, our lead over movistar was slowly increasing and we were still in touch with the black boat just. The forecast looked good too, thirty knots on the horizon and some exciting sailing. This was until we got rolled by a massive front - the wind became and light and shifty and we ended up bobbing around. This would have been tolerable if the front had then passed by and allowed us to hook in the strong south westerlies behind.
However the front has moved at pretty much identical pace to us and we have been bumping into it ever since. The Pirates got away and movistar caught up. To make matters worse the black boat seems to have escaped scot free and on the last sched had extended their lead to 120 miles. Very frustrating indeed...
We are now left hoping that we can either get back through the front (unlikely) or it will clear out for us allowing us to get back to business of sailing fast in the conditions that we come to the southern ocean for!! So far it has felt like a really long Fastnet as opposed a blast across the bottom of the planet!!
However we continue to keep our chins up hoping that each sched will show us getting closer to the Pirates once more. At least they are gong through all the same emotions as us as they battle with the same weather just 7 miles on our beam. With 800 miles to the first scoring gate anything can happen...
Cheers,
Si Fi. Simon Fisher - navigator
From: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN LEG TWO DAY 7
Sent: 8 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER 08 January 2006 15:35
Subject: Eco Geeko day 7
The wind gods have been a bit fickle today, but the albatross have more than made up for it. The boys have been working hard in the chilly damp conditions, and things were very quiet in the fog and mist this morning.
Later, when the muck lifted a bit, the big beautiful gliders homed in on Pearl, and have been very affectionate today, hanging out close to the headstay, and doing little 'flicks' off the jib luff. Really cool to have them so close.
Some speckly brown-ish grey-ish models that got very excited when we just had some fat tuna doing side flops and belly bombs about 200 metres away. I reckon they might have hoped for a little mackerel or squid nibble that the tunny were after.
We'll check in again with our fine feathered flying friends tomorrow daylight.
Yep, it's good here on Pirate Poultry Parade.
Paul Cayard - skipper
From: MOVISTAR LEG TWO DAY 7
Sent: 8 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER Sent: 08 January 2006 05:48
Ouch , that hurt. The fear of not been able to hang on to the front has come true. Of course massive losses against the leaders, as they were still sailing in the old breeze, but it seems that the front is fast so that all of a sudden it has already caught the three in front of us. The predictions were wrong, and we were just at the wrong place and the wrong time.
If no ice waypoint was there, than no problem, you stay south. Only two degrees south, and there is nice SW. It will be interesting to see how Wharington will get back from the south to the waypoint. movistar lost some extra miles by keeping a northerly course, as the predictions had that still as an escape route.
But even though we were having a shocker the guys are doing well. Last night the southerly all of a sudden came in, meant a total frenzy onboard, changing headsails, moving all the sails from downstairs back on deck, and moving all the loose gear to the back end inside movistar. More weight on the windward side of the boat , more performance On deck now soaking wet, besides the spray flying over the deck, the rain pours down. But at least we are moving again.
rgds
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
on board the fine vesel movistar
From: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN LEG TWO DAY 6
Sent: 8 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER SENT 08 January 2006 00:36
Pirate Daily Report - 22:00 January 7, 2006
Position: 42,30.94S , 46,56.79E
Speed: 14 knots, Course: 59 deg.
We have been battling with ABN 2 all day. They caught up to us and nearly passed us in 20 knots reaching conditions. They recorded the best runs of the four lead boats on the last two position reports. Their extra form stability was perfect for these conditions. The wind has now lightened considerably and lifted and we are making some small gains back on them. We have been within sight of them all day except that a thick fog came in for about 6 hours but we tracked them on our radar.
ABN 1 also made some good gains on the fleet earlier today but then slowed and lost some ground to both us and ABN2 as they got to some lighter winds first.
We spent a lot of time worrying if we had the right sail on today when ABN 2 caught us. We haven't had enough time yet to be sure of our sail cross-overs. Also we are learning where there is too much overlap in some sails and where we have holes in our inventory. ABN 2 had a very nice specialty sail on today that we got to have a look at. For a long time they were flying it stealth in the fog, but t
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