Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 7 Day 6

by Volvo Ocean Race media 21 May 2009 16:23 BST

Rollercoaster ride towards the Emerald Isle

The breeze is up and the Volvo fleet is rocketing downwind towards a predicted finish in Galway, Ireland early on Sunday morning. It’s the kind of sailing that everyone has been looking forward to and it is almost certainly the last time the boats will have the chance to show off their paces in the open ocean.

“There is something magical that happens out here, miles from anywhere. There is a definite edge to life that you don’t get racing in coastal waters,” said Rick Deppe, MCM onboard second-placed PUMA.

It is smiles all round too on Delta Lloyd, who are in the lead today. “This sailing makes you want to do this race again,” said navigator Wouter Verbraak. “The sailing conditions are absolutely stunning. Downwind, 25-30 knots, flat water and a red morning sun,” he said

But, the old adage goes ‘red sky at night – sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning – sailor’s warning’, and Wouter says the warning signs are already there.

“A thin layer of clouds is steadily approaching and growing thicker. The weather models of modern technology confirm the sailor’s rhyme. They are predicting winds to build to 30 knots tonight and more tomorrow,” he confirmed.

Ahead of the cold front, the crews are playing the fortunes of the Gulf Stream, which, if in the right place, can give a boat a boost of nearly three knots. Scrutinising satellite images and recording surface temperatures gives a rough guideline as to where to look for the best current, the temperature gauge being the best tool as it shows the transition from colder to warmer water.

“The trick,” says Wouter “is to find a good patch of current and try to stick with it by following its temperature trail.” No fun for the navigators, who are constantly monitoring the situation and not able to sleep.

Yesterday afternoon, Telefónica Black (third place today) was neck and neck with Ericsson 4 (fourth place today), running with masthead gennakers. “The guys have just completed a back down right in front of us,” wrote a puzzled Ericsson 4 bowman, Phil Jameson, as Telefónica Black careered around broaching before eventually the crew sailed the boat backwards.

“Look,” shouted Telefónica Black’s David Vera, “there is a big turtle stuck on the leading edge of the keel, unbelievable.” One by one, the crew peered through the endoscope to see a three-foot full size ocean turtle trapped on the front side of the keel blade and desperately trying to free itself.

“Fernando Echávarri was at the helm and doing everything to help free the turtle, swinging the keel from side to side and finally putting the boat into a full broach in the modest 15 knot wind.

No luck, the turtle was still stuck, pressed onto the keel by 13 knots of boat speed. “Let us stop the boat and back off,” suggested Echávarri. The crew dropped the spinnaker on the foredeck, put the bows of the boat into the wind and, with the help of a staysail, sailed the boat backwards.

“There it is, just next to the boat,” cried David. The crew could all see the seemingly unhurt turtle swimming around the surface in gentle circles. “What a ride for the poor animal,” wrote navigator Roger Nilson. “It looked happy and we waved goodbye and hoisted the kite and off we went again. Just another day in the office… who said it is boring to be at sea?”

However, turtle incidents aside, no one is forgetting that this is the North Atlantic and gales here have caused the demise of many a ship. This ocean demands and receives deep respect and the helmsman’s current smile masks a worried face as the fleet blasts towards Galway. “Better get some good lunch in and enjoy the sailing on deck before it all takes a turn for the worst,” said Wouter. “Keep your helmets ready, it’s going to be wet. We are going in!”

Leg Seven Day 6: 1400 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) DTL 1186 nm
2. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +2
3. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) + 3
4. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +6
5. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +9
6. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +36
7. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +46

Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

Positions are updated every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org

DELTA LLOYD LEG SEVEN DAY 6 QFB: received 21.05.09 1231 GMT

Gulf Stream games ahead of big winds tomorrow

“This sailing makes you want to do this race again.” The smile on his face is telling as Nick Bice comes down after an hour of driving. The sailing conditions are absolutely stunning. Downwind, 25-30 knots, flat water and a red morning sun. With water temperatures up to 18C even the gloves and hats are off. This is the North Atlantic showing its pretty face.

Not that I get to enjoy much of it. I am stuck in the nav station monitoring the movements of the big anaconda. With her movements very irregular, the Gulf Stream deals us different cards all the time: 2.7 knots of current with us, then minutes later only 1.3 without much warning. Sure, we have the latest satellite pictures with the sea surface temperatures, but that only gives a rough guideline as to where to look for the best current. The best tool is the water temperature gauge that shows the transition from colder to warmer water. The trick is to find a good patch of current and try to stick with it by following its temperature trail. The result: constant monitoring and not much sleep… but very cool!

The happy smiling face of the Atlantic is about to change. Soon we are going to see her other side. The one that sent many a ship to the bottom of the ocean, the one that demands our deep respect. We have seen that face, and it can be pretty ugly.

The warning is in that same beautiful morning setting. “A red morning, a sailors warning.” That warning sign is small but now clearly visible on the western horizon. A thin layer of clouds, steadily approaching and growing thicker. The weather models of modern technology confirm the sailors rhyme. They are predicting winds to build to 30 knots tonight and more tomorrow.

As we have known about the front for a couple of days, we have already made preparations for things to come. Yesterday we spent an hour folding the upwind sails into smaller packs, so that we can stack the boat more aft. The flat bottoms make these boats fast in medium and light air, but the downside is that they become ‘noisy’ in stronger winds. We need every kilo of stackable weight as far possible back as we can and we have made it our mission of the day to figure out ways to get even more weight back.

So all smiles covering worried faces as we are blasting our way towards Galway. Better get some good lunch in and enjoy the sailing on deck before it is all taking a turn for the worse. Keep your helmets ready, it’s going to be wet, we are going in!

Wouter Verbraak - navigator

TELEFÓNICA BLACK LEG SEVEN DAY 6 QFB: received 21.05.09 0049 GMT

What a relief..! Winter turned into summer as we swept around the south east corner of the ice box. Water temp was suddenly up to 18 Celsius, blue skies and hot sun as we hoisted our big kite at lunchtime yesterday and started to go downhill.

Ericsson 4 was close in our heels around the imaginary mark and, after a short gybe to the north, we could even see the Blue boat on the south western horizon.

The reason for the warmth is of course a branch of the Gulf Stream which, at times today, was pushing us north east with two knots of welcome current. This famous current is the only reason why we in Scandinavia have an acceptable climate, otherwise Stockholm would be like Northern Alaska.

The warm current brought something with it that caused an unexpected little adventure today. Suddenly the whole boat started to vibrate and the steering felt very strange. Nothing was hanging on the rudders so what could it be? David Vera took the endoscope and put it through its hole in the bottom of the boat to inspect the keel and dagger board. He burst out into a roaring laughter.

“Look, look there is a big turtle stuck on the leading edge of the keel, unbelievable...!” Nobody believed him until we all had a quick look through the optical instrument. Sure, there it was, a three feet full size ocean going turtle was hanging on the front side of the thin keel blade and desperately trying to free itself with all its four little paddle-like fins. Fernando Echávarri at the helm was doing everything to help it come loose, first by swinging the keel from side to side; finally he put the boat into a full broach in the modest 15 knots SSW’ly wind. Ericsson 4, only two miles behind us must have been wondering what we were doing, steering all over the ocean in order to free our selves from a turtle!

No luck, the turtle was still stuck pressed onto the keel by 13 knots of boat speed. “Let us stop the boat and back off..!” was the call from Fernando and soon we drop the kite on the foredeck, go head to wind, stop and with help of the staysail go backwards.

“There it is, just next to the boat..!” says David and we can all see the seemingly unhurt turtle swimming around on the surface in gentle circles. What a ride for the poor animal! It looks happy and we wave good bye, hoist the kite and off we go again. Ericsson 4 is now a few hundred metres behind, but hours later they have passed us with their irritating edge in boat speed.

Another day in the office...Who said it is boring to be at sea..?

Yours

Roger Nilson - navigator

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG SEVEN DAY 5 QFB: received 20.05.09 1815 GMT

Finally around the ice box and into another chapter of the race. Out of the fog, cold water and radar watching and into ‘sailing around the high’ stuff in 19 degree water.

Also great to be in open water again with no crab pots and fog which turn the situation into a bizarre twist on Deadliest Catch, where the crabs try to catch the boat. I almost yelled out ‘MOTHER LOAD!!!’ once with one big haul around multiple foils, but managed to hold back as it would have confused Jordi Calafat even more about which way to turn the boat.

We just about feel as though we are back into the race after our group’s expensive escapade for the scoring gate points. We had quite mixed feelings as soon as we crossed, great to get the maximum points before the sudden realisation of the size of the job ahead of us to catch the boats who chose to ignore the scoring gate and who were now well ahead of us. At this stage of the overall race, every team has a different agenda when it comes to grabbing points, some going for leg wins, some for points against other boats in particular and some just going for points overall. It still makes it hard when the scoring gate is so much at odds with the long term strategy of the leg though!

Almost back with the top of the fleet now after a really good night last night, we chose to press up quite hard against the ice fence and made good gains on the guys further offshore than us. It was not easy to get the positioning that we wanted with very unstable conditions around the first ice box corner, but we got there in the end. When the fog lifted this morning, we had a much nicer painting in front of us with Ericsson 4 on the bow, Delta Lloyd to the south and going back and PUMA behind them and going back further and faster.

We’ve now squeezed around the high, which has given us the soft reaching conditions for the last 24hrs and it’s into some nice gentle running before a frontal build tonight which will see some action to keep us very busy for the next few days into Galway. Every time a satellite pass comes in, the dramatic looking line with the shift and pressure is ever closer. There will be a gybe in there somewhere with one last bit of the ice box to deal with; hopefully we won’t be faced with the same dilemma as at the scoring gate reconciling long term and short term plans. That’s this afternoon’s project for me.

Its Daryl Wislang’s birthday today, we tend to get things that remind us of home as presents and with him being a Kiwi and me an Aussie, many of his food presents are great home reminders for me too! Just had my last pineapple lump – I promise...... I just knew there had to be an upside to associating with Kiwis!!! Ha Ha. Happy birthday Daryl.

Tom Addis - navigator

ERICSSON 4 LEG SEVEN DAY 6 QFB: received 21.05.09 1438 GMT

Firstly apologies to all for having to read another report from me when I’m sure it’s the crew you would prefer to be reading right now.

The breeze has built steadily over the last few hours and conditions are once again what we would describe onboard as heinous. If you’re not on deck tethered on to the yacht you are down below and trying to get in your bunk ASAP as this is the safest place to be - although there is little rest to be had.

It’s a bit like being on the log flume ride at one of the big theme parks - or at least like one particular part of the ride. I’m sure you have all laughed at the pictures of yourself taken as you plummet down the steepest slide to the guaranteed soaking at the bottom, well, being on Ericsson 4 is very much like the four seconds before and the four seconds after the flash has caught your expression on the log luge.

We are all enjoying the feeling of going fast and the acceleration and we know we will end up wet at the end of each surge down the wave – I’m sure there are looks of both exhilaration and panic on our faces - like the photo memento of our day out. The difference onboard here, is that the stakes are a lot higher. We don’t know what to expect in each trough and as we are not on rails we could easily find ourselves spearing off course - both of which are definitely not part of your fun park ride ( although I’m sure there have been some near misses at the travelling gypsy fairs).

It’s these moments of realism which dampen down the excitement of sailing in these conditions, most of the boys out here, and definitely all onboard Ericsson 4, are very much in control of their emotions - you don’t want to get too excited by the highs and you don’t want to open yourself up to the lows.

This emotional guarding is often seen as an arrogance or as if the boys are boring, when in realism its just an adaption for us to be able to push hard and be competitive in very tough and extreme conditions, which would see many tough people fold as the alarms ringing out in the brain are carefully analyzed and ignored in pursuit of performance.

It’s only when the ‘poo’ really hits the fan is the survival mode allowed to surface and you must keep a very cool head for this also - another reason why the emotions are controlled – it’s a survival adaption. I’m sure you see this in all sorts of endurance sports and activities from mountaineering to ultra marathons - these athletes will push the mind until it’s time to really take notice.

So it’s pretty wet onboard once more as we charge along at speeds in the low 30s at times. The fleet looks to have split so Jules (Jules Salter – navigator) is running and re-running routes to check we are happy heading north before it’s too late to consolidate our position.

The boat keeps ploughing into the back of waves and this created a slapstick comedy moment at my expense. It was as we were decelerating in one of these nose dives that I lost my balance and staggered backwards. As I did, my foot found a secure hold and stopped me toppling over. Unfortunately for me and to the amusement of the others, my foothold was actually in one of the buckets!

It was stuck fast and as I shook my foot the bucket remained unmoved. I walked aft with a step - clump - step - clump until Stu Bannatyne kindly freed my hoof - but not without a bit of effort.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I inherit the nickname ‘Mr Bean’ or ‘Harold Lloyd’ after that performance. Let’s hope there are not any banana skins left lying around or people with ladders on their shoulders being called by a colleague behind them.

The day is grey and wet and I think it has rained a little although I would not be surprised if it was a glorious day outside of our ball of spray. Looks like a few days to go of this!

Apologies to Galway - we may be bringing inclement weather with us!

Guy Salter - MCM

GREEN DRAGON LEG SEVEN DAY 6 QFB: received 21.05.09 1501 GMT

Over the Handlebars

It feels like we are in the North Atlantic now. The wind built to over 30 knots ahead of the front but with a nice sea state we managed to keep the masthead spinnaker up as far as the last ice gate.

Since then we peeled to the fractional spinnaker and enjoyed an awesome ride as the waves rapidly built. Enough was enough and after one wipe out we have throttled back a bit by flying a flatter fractional zero spinnaker.

Boat speeds are solid twenties, often 25 and sometimes into the thirties. We are nearly pointing directly at Galway so life is good. This is what I had in mind when people talked to me about the Volvo Ocean Race - hard, fast running in lots of wind. It is only the third time we have had these conditions all race. However much fun it is on deck there is always the nagging feeling that you are on the edge of control. You are heavily reliant on your equipment and teamwork.

Down below it feels and sounds horrendous. Everything is crashing and banging and the boat flexes this way and that. My ear is finely tuned to the sound of carbon cracking and I jump up at the slightest 'different' noise down below. So far so good however. Rest will be very hard to come by between here and Galway but at least we know we only have a few days of this to go. The miles are tumbling rapidly and our quest to sail back into Galway Bay ever closer. We may have sailed over 30,000 miles but we are going to be made to fight very hard for the last 1000 miles.

Ian Walker - skipper

ERICSSON 3 LEG SEVEN DAY 6 QFB: received 21.05.09 1601 GMT

Now we're talking

Now everything I thought was going to take place on this leg starts to happen. It is wet everywhere, bumpy, around 10 degrees in the water and we are doing between 20 and 30 knots of boatspeed VMG downwind with steadily around 30 knots of wind.

This is when these boats are in top of their game. Our Ericsson 3 is like a wild horse in this stuff. She is twisting and turning and all the time trying to take control of herself. The crew and particularly the helmsman has to wrestle and keep her down every second.

Standing at the wheel is no longer a matter of fingertip feeling and fine tuning with small soft movements. It's about having your feet far from each other and working hard to keep your balance, while turning like crazy between the waves. Sometimes you are not fast enough, or there just is no path to find so you can do nothing but let the bow dig down in the sea with a massive wall of water coming towards you and flushes the crew around the cockpit as a result. You better stay clipped on in these conditions. You might think you are in control and that you can bear any wave. Believe me, that's not the case...

This morning was, without doubt one, of the most beautiful and memorable moments of sailing since the start of this race. We had around 25 knots of wind and were doing about the same speed when the sun came out. The temperature was perfect for a Scandinavian used to chilly winds. Full wet weather gear with one layer of thermals underneath was enough not to freeze and we were pretty smoothly running along with the sun in our faces and with Ireland coming up quickly ahead. Now it's a bit more crazy.

Unfortunately we haven't made the big gains on the guys in the front that we would have hoped. We don't have that much runway so we must start soon. But the big stuff has just arrived and we still have some cards to pull out of our sleeve.

Gustav Morin - MCM