Boatmail- Day 5, Leg 5- The Trades Beckon

by Various onboard VOR Scribes on 6 Apr 2006 From: ERICSSON RACING TEAM QFB LEG FIVE DAY 5 (2)
Sent: 06 April 2006 17:51
Life onboard is pretty good now. We are finally across the ridge which slowed our progress the past few days. We have southeast trade wind conditions now which means dealing with the clouds properly can provide some gains on the fleet. There is some luck involved with the timing, but if you position the boat in the correct place, you can benefit from the clouds...but it is a tricky balance of your sailing course and how far off course you want to be to negotiate the clouds.

The heat has been fine to date, but we are still south of the equator, so we are expecting it to get worse. A few of us have skin rashes from the heat and being moist, but from what I remember the last two times that I have done this leg, it is all normal stuff. Temps are pretty hot below, but fortunately we have fans on each bunk to provide a breeze on your body.

All in all, the mood is good onboard and we are racing hard to the Island Fernando de Noronha, which is a scoring gate. We are insight of Brasil and ABN1 and have been battling every inch of the way to gain performance and gain on the other boats. 400 miles to Fernando and then another 3600 to Baltimore, so a lot more racing to go!

John Kostecki
Ericsson Racing Team

From: ABN AMRO TWO QFB LEG FIVE DAY 5
Sent: 06 April 2006 12:42
There is little more frustrating in yacht racing than being becalmed which was unfortunately was how we spent the majority of yesterday. I guess you could compare it with being stuck in the middle of a desert with sand dunes that seem to go on for an eternity in every direction and no sign of escape or change or relief. As we sat there struggling to make our way through the water, the ocean that surrounded us was completely glassy, often with no signs of breeze what so ever. The water was a brilliant blue colour, ever inviting us to dive in - with no wind there was no respite from the heat and the intermittent puffy white clouds provided no shelter from the sun. Despite the beauty of the surroundings we were left feeling completely frustrated and annoyed.

In 12 hours yesterday, just 2 scheds, it feels if the tone of the whole leg has been changed for us, we have gone from being in the heat of the battle, challenging for a top position to having to play catch up for what might be the next 3000 miles. It is a terrible feeling that goes through you when you open the position report only to find you have been left by
the rest of the fleet. First you feel annoyed, then frustrated, then completely helpless as you struggle to find a plan to gain back the miles you have lost in the last 6 hours. After that the guilt sets in, as you realise that you have to tell the other 9 guys on the crew that the last 6 hours have been a disaster. You end up sitting staring at the numbers in silence, screaming on the inside.

However the fight goes on, we will surely claw our way back mile by mile once more. On the most part we have being going fast on this leg and we are enjoying the advantage the new sails we have on board are bringing us. With any luck we will be able to salvage a few points by the time we get to the scoring gate...

Cheers, for now,

Simon Fisher - navigator

From: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN QFB LEG FIVE DAY 5
Sent: 06 April 2006 02:13
Position: 13,4.11S , 35,39.36W
Speed: 13 knots, Course: 34 deg.

It was a light a variable day today with winds as light as 3 knots. There is always a lot of anxiety when you have that little wind as you wonder what everyone else has. Today we had to fight our way through a large cell of little to no wind in order to hook into the trades.

We could see the cumulus clouds that mark the trades all day, but at boat speeds that were as low as 3 knots at times, it took us all day to go 40 miles. About 1600 local time we went under a cloud line and on the other side were the beautiful trades waiting to take us away.

We are now doing 12 knots of speed in 9 knots of wind at 80 true wind angle. These boats are machines in this wind speed.

All in all, we had a pretty good day against the fleet today. At the 1000 sked, there was compression as we all closed in on Movistar who hit the light patch first. On the 1600 sked ABN1 and Ericsson made a nice move on the west side of the group, probably getting to leeward of a cloud that had rain coming out of it. On the 2200 sked, movistar extended 3 miles on us and ABN 1 gained one mile on us and we gained on the rest of the fleet. They still had very light wind at the time of the sked so we may have extended even more since then.

We are now kind of on autopilot for the next 48 hours. We are aiming straight at Fernando de Noronha, the island off Brazil that we have to leave to port and will count as a scoring gate. The wind will lift and head a little over the course to Fernando but there are no more major tactical decisions left to make until we leave Fernando. So it is all about setting the boat up to get maximum performance for the given wind speed and angle.

The sea is smooth so good for sleeping. And that is where I am off to next.

Paul Cayard

From: ABN AMRO ONE QFB LEG FIVE DAY 5
Sent: 06 April 2006 02:28

The word for the day on board ‘Black Betty’ ( AKA ABN AMRO 1) is
‘CLOUDS’.

Today more then any of the previous few days, has been all about picking your way through or, more to the point, working the clouds. Previously we had considered on average to be pretty cautious with them. Yes there were gains to be made if you got yourself positioned just right, but generally speaking it was better to stay away as often the gain from a cloud was paid for by an even bigger light spot after it.

Today however as we where analysing our situation from the back of the pack, we decided that maybe our approach was just too conservative. The day before we had seen both Ericsson and Brasil 1 come from a long way behind us and by the end of the day pretty much on the horizon in front, so today we decided would be all about attacking the clouds... Taking them on head to head...going into them as far as we dared to pick up the stronger breezes. At times getting it wrong and having the wind do a 180 degree shift on us and we would have the gennaker all wrapped up in the rig. Then once right in the middle of this huge cloud, we were faced with a water spout, a mini tornado that was spinning on the water, sucking sea water all the way up into the cloud, looking more like something out of the movie Twister or maybe even the Wizard of Oz than an ocean racing scene.

Anyway I would hate to think how many sail changes we did, or how many gybes even more the point, as at times we would gybe just for as short a distance as 100 meters, just looking to stay in a very narrow corridor of wind. Right now though it looks like all our hard work and our new approach has paid off as on the latest position report we are in 3rd place!! Having passed ABN AMRO 2, Brazil 1 and Ericsson and having made some nice gains on the Pirates and Movistar.

Today has been Brad's (Jackson) birthday. He turned 38 today which has seen him be the brunt of a few jokes on board. In the last Volvo which Brad and I did together on Merit Cup, we had Brad' 30th Birthday during the Miami stop over and it doesn't seem that long ago. Brad and I have now done a huge amount of our yachting together, this will be the 3rd time around the world together as well as an America's Cup. He is a key member of the Mari-Cha team and also was my right hand man when I was getting ready to do my Solo Transat race last year on ‘Pindar’. Brad was the first call that I made when I got the job to skipper ABN AMRO 1 and will be my best man at my wedding next month, so it is pretty cool to be celebrating another birthday with him at sea. Although next year and ev