Boatmail - Day 16 - Down to the last nervous miles

by Various scribes aboard the Volvo OR fleet on 18 Jan 2006 From: ING REAL ESTATE BRUNEL LEG TWO DAY 16
Sent: 17 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER Sent: 17 January 2006 18:03
41 30s 106 10 e

Leaving the Southern Ocean.

By the end of this day we shall sail north of the 40 deg s line of latitude which means for the moment we leave the Southern Ocean. After Eclipse, providing the right weather exists we shall dive south of 40 again to make speedy progress towards Melbourne. This is my 10th time in the Southern Ocean and with all the ice waypoints it certainly was different from the Icebergs and huge swells of down south. I feel sorry for young Becksy (Mark Bartlett) who, prior to the start in Cape Town listened to me as I painted a picture of the real Southern Ocean - maybe next leg Becksy!

Talking of Becksy, he's a good young lad who, without fail during each watch change, will put the billy on and make the lads a well deserved cupa! We reckon he has made in the region of 500 cups now - Grant struck gold finding this lad.

Onboard food also starts to be rationed, ration director Jeff Scott is distributing all meals on a daily basis (Mountain house single portion packs) and these in turn are being traded like hotcakes!

Meanwhile we are back on the wind waiting for a cold front to pass and sweep us into Eclipse Island, each sched we are gaining on the leaders as they sail fully upwind to Melbourne. A nice change to see the miles reduce to the leaders.

Matthew Humphries - navigator




From: BRASIL 1 LEG TWO DAY 16 (2)
Sent: 16 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER
Hello!

Inside the boat everything is running smoothly! We are taking good care of the boat and nothing has happened!

We had some pretty wet days here. But, believe me, when I write it’s wet, it’s REALLY wet, something almost unbearable. The only good thing about it is the speeds. Here, sailing fast means getting on dry land faster, but also means getting there soaking wet. Sometimes, we joke that it would be better to slow down and get there dry. But it’s only us joking…

The last couple of days were different. Last night, we even hit a no wind zone and, for a few moments, we had zero speeds. We couldn’t ask for a drier situation… Later, the wind was back and we’re now sailing downwind, with winds up to 40km/h. This is one of the better situations to sail: we’re fast, it’s safe, we’re heading in the right direction and we’re dry.

Inside, the boat is great. For a few days, it was impossible to get out of the wet weather gear even inside the boat! Right now, everything is dry. Kiko, our generator manager, turned on everything he could to dry the boat: engine, generator. The interior turned into a sauna. Pretty good conditions… This means no wet clothes for a few moments. We could, actually, walk on socks for some minutes, something pretty uncommon in a boat.

That’s it for now. We are sailing carefully to Australia to prevent damage. But remember: we’re keeping track of the boats in front of us! We hope that no one gets damaged again, but how about going into windless zones? The Australians could get into one, right?

See you next time,
Bochecha (André Fonseca)
Helmsman



From: MOVISTAR LEG TWO DAY 16
Sent: 17 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER Sent: 17 January 2006 17:52
Back to where we were on movistar. The replaced O-ring in the port hydraulic ram has spat the dummy. Consequence, the keel is back to a max of 20 degree, this way not much force on the cylinders and less loss of hydraulic fluid. We can go of course to a single ram, but after what happened last evening to the Pirates, want to use that as the last option.

Who gives me a guarantee that our rod will not snap as well? These rods were replaced in Cape Town, after recommendation after what happened to Ericsson in leg 1, but I guess they must have mixed up some material numbers, and made the rods out of recycled coca-cola cans. It is hard to believe, you lay your trust in a worldwide well respected hydraulic company and this happens. This was supposed to be a yacht race, and not a survivor race. Although it still has the first principals of yacht racing intact. You have to finish before you get to score points, so we are in fully in that mode.

Comes of course the question: how did you manage to sail 20.000 miles before, without having real problems with the hydraulics. Answer: they were nearly double the weight, and working with a less pressurized system, and I changed them for 'performance' gain to be made.

In Melbourne we will rip these ones out, and send them back to the manufacturer (MONEY BACK!!) and put our stainless steel ones back in movistar. It is easy to calculate how many hours the boat will be slower, when sailing them virtual around the world with the heavier rams, but at least you can sail the boat full throttle and ...........can sleep a little better when off-watch.

It looks tricky ahead. I know the leaders probably think: not again. But light air will suit us well, as we don't need to swing the keel to gain stability.

Of course everybody is down a bit, but what I said to Mike (Joubert) today has hit like a hammer. I asked him im what position they were after leg 2 with Assa in the last race. Slowly a smile appeared on his face, changing into a big grin. There is still a lot of racing to be done.



From: ABN AMRO ONE LEG TWO DAY 16
Sent: 17 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER
If I can get through this race without a stomach Ulcer from the constant worry I will be amazed, man if it hasn't been one thing on this leg then it has been another. Still we are bashing our way into an awful sea state in the Great Australian bight.

It's not like it has been that windy, with the wind speeds between 18 and 25 knots, but just the constant launching off waves only to land with this hideous crack has just about worn us all out, this is one of those times when you have to take a seriously good look at yourself for enjoying Ocean Racing, why we do this to ourselves, I will never quite know.

We are now through under the 1000 mile mark, in nice running conditions just a couple of days away, sadly that's not the case at this time, looks like we will be doing this for at least another 36 hours before it will hopefully start to free us enough to get some reaching sails on.

The only upside of the conditions is that we seem to be going well, so that is one bonus, our final approach though is looking pretty tricky, but surely we have had enough parking lots for one leg?? Please?? Anyway, the famous saying stands again. 'Time will tell'.

If you are able to come in and see the boats arrive in Melbourne, one thing is for sure. WE will be very pleased to see you!!

Cheers
Mike
ABN AMRO ONE





From: BRASIL 1 LEG TWO DAY 16
Sent: 17 January 2006
To: DUTY OFFICER Sent: 17 January 2006 0442
Today, the job to write a little about what’s happening aboard is mine. I guess that having as many writers as possible is good for the race and I’m doing the best I can to avoid that team director Alan Adler voting me out of the team… Just kidding… When our navigator Marcel van Trieste said that it was my turn to write the daily report I tried to persuade him to do it himself with no success. I guess he’s not a storyteller…

All in all, I guess who’s reading this will have a good time because today we had a good time. Exactly what does it mean? A good day for us? A good day happens when we are sailing downwind and the wind is not that fast, at about 22 knots, coming in an angle of 145 degrees. That way, the boat is fast and sailing in the right direction. At 20 knots, and no rain, we don’t get wet and, most importantly, we don’t need too many people to drive the boat. Four is the right number. That is why I’m down here, writing this. It also helps the fact that the boat is not shaking so much. Sometimes it is impossible to find the keyboard.

I’ll try to be as inte