Volvo Ocean Race Leg 6 - Day 10
by Volvo Ocean Race media 1 May 2012 15:52 BST
1 May 2012
PUMA cling on to meagre lead as CAMPER spearhead chase
PUMA escaped the clutches of the Doldrums with only a wafer-thin lead on Tuesday, after a night’s “yo-yo racing” through squalls and rainclouds saw their closest rivals gain about 30 nautical miles in 24 hours.
At 1300 UTC just 2.8 nm separated first and third, with PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG leading by 1.8 nm over CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and Team Telefónica a nautical mile further back in third place.
“At one point it seemed like CAMPER were about a mile and half away,” said PUMA skipper Ken Read. “I don’t know if they were really that close but their light was awful bright right next to us. That was our 30-mile advantage gone. That gives you an idea of how tight it is and how big the yo-yo swings are.”
With half of Leg 6 from Itajaí to Miami still to race, Read is all too aware that there are further threats to PUMA’s long-held advantage to come, with a tropical wave in the North Atlantic set to disrupt the trade winds creating further unstable weather on the race track in coming days.
“There are plenty more moments of light air pot holes ahead that we’re going to run into and most likely the troops behind are going to come hauling back into us,’’ Read said. “This race is not for the faint of heart.”
Meanwhile, confidence is building on board CAMPER, who notched up an impressive 433 nm in 24 hours in the Doldrums. Navigator Will Oxley is hoping for similar figures over the coming day as the trades erupt.
“The GRIB files have been completely wrong so it’s been ‘seat of your pants’ stuff,” he said. “Really, we’re just trying to maximise speed to Eleuthera, which is the next waypoint.
“All you can do is sail the course you believe is the fastest to the finish line, so at this point we’re not trying to cover other boats, we’re just trying to sail the course we think will get is there as quick as possible.”
While speeds are set to increase tonight, Volvo meteorologist Gonzalo Infante said a fast moving tropical wave would complicate the teams’ courses. Infante reckons the tropical wave could force to the top three into taking varied courses based on their individual performance.
“In the eastern edge of the wave the trades will be pulled more south east than east, meaning more down wind angles for anyone positioned there,” Infante said.
Infante said sailing east may suit CAMPER, who have in the past struggled to match the close reaching performance of the two Juan K boats, PUMA and Telefónica.
Infante expects the boats to be into fast sailing conditions tonight, with boat speeds around 20 knots in winds ranging from 16 to 22 knots, at angles between 110 to 130 degrees.
At the rear of the fleet fourth placed Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and fifth placed Groupama sailing team continue to negotiate a difficult comeback route from 81 nm and 93 nm in the wake of the leaders respectively.
Groupama Media Crew Member Yann Riou said the only thing that was moving with any great speed was the estimated time of arrival of the fleet in the United States.
“It's likely that the amount of recovery days we have in Florida will take a knock,’’ he said. “However, the longer and more twisted the leg, the more chances we'll have of making up ground on our rivals.”
The leading boats in the fleet are expected to cross the finish line in Miami on May 9.
Position Report at 13:02:37 UTC:
| Pos | Team | DTL | BS | DTF |
|---|
| 1 | PUMA | 0 | 9.3 | 2317.4 |
| 2 | CMPR | 1.8 | 10.1 | 2319.2 |
| 3 | TELE | 2.8 | 11.9 | 2320.2 |
| 4 | ADOR | 81.1 | 9.5 | 2398.5 |
| 5 | GPMA | 93.7 | 10.4 | 2411.1 |
| - | SNYA | Did Not Start |
www.VolvoOceanRace.com
Blog from the Seas (by Amory Ross, MCM, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG)
“One word: frenzy. It was an absolute frenzy at first.” – Shannon Falcone
LOCATION: 330 miles E of Cavenne, French Guiana
WINDSPEED: 2.7 kts
BOATSPEED: 2.38 kts
HEADING: 278-degrees
DISTANCE TO CARIBBEAN: 1200 miles
We still hate clouds. We hate them, and even the pretty ones too. They ruin our days and plague our nights, and they’ve just done it again. One massive, unavoidable green glob on the radar and an ominously dark splotch of horizon indicate imminent doom, but nothing can prepare you for the gut wrenching conclusion once it’s run its course and stolen your wind, hopes, and in this case, your hard fought lead.
After the last dose of calm calamity cut our advantage from 35 miles to 5, we extended on the trailing pair to see the margin of comfort return to the 30s. But yesterday was tough, and we spent much of it dodging rain on the horizon. Again our lead shrank. And now one final and frantic squall has left us virtually even with CAMPER and Telefónica. Not very encouraging, but nonetheless, it’s back to the task at hand.
We again find ourselves moving food, spares, sails, and personal gear to the front of the boat in just 2 knots of wind, praying something will fill our sad sails and get us the blazes out of here. We’re all up and we’ve literally gone through every sail on the boat during the last hour, but it’s done nothing to prolong the inevitable. There’s not enough wind to justify unfurling a jib, so we sit, floundering under main only, keel canted to one side to prevent the boom from sweeping uncontrollably across the deck.
Okay, moving on. I’m tired of talking about clouds, tired of thinking about clouds. Just hate ‘em! Going to go make some coffee for the fellas as it’s looking like it will be a long and crummy night. Thankfully, tomorrow is another day!
- Amory
CAMPER pulling no punches in Atlantic scrap (from CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand)
With around 2,000 miles to the Leg Six finish in Miami, the crew of CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand is pulling no punches as it engages in hand-to-hand combat with two of its Volvo Ocean Race rivals in the Atlantic Ocean.
At 1200 UTC today (Tuesday) the latest position report revealed less than 11 nautical miles separates the leading trio with leg leader Puma followed closely by CAMPER in second place and Telefonica in third. The three boats are continually within sight of each other in a compelling tussle, and the crews are closely monitoring every weather update to decide on sail combinations.
CAMPER has avoided the worst of the Doldrums’ wind holes to overtake Telefonica and cut Puma’s leg lead to just 6.5 nm in an amazing burst of speed in challenging conditions that surpassed all expectations.
“Somewhat bizarrely our best 24-hour run for this leg maybe across the Doldrums; so far we have done 428 in the last 24 hours. Here’s hoping it lasts until we get through into the trades again,” said CAMPER navigator Will Oxley.
However, with average wind speeds dramatically dropping to below four knots, the progress of the leading trio has stalled and the game of cat-and-mouse is set to continue.
Oxley insisted his team would not be too distracted by the close attention of Puma and Telefonica and would very much be focusing on themselves and their own performances.
“At this point all you can do is sail the course that you believe in, we’re not trying to cover any of the other boats. We just trying to stay on a course that will get us there as quick as possible,” he said.
Oxley said he was delighted to be challenging near the front as they look to win a leg for the first time in this race. “Thankfully we are having conditions in which the boat is really strong, and that’s great,” he said.
Media crew member Hamish Hooper predicted a long night ahead as CAMPER looks to pounce on Puma.
“Our fingers are most firmly crossed that we can make it through these Doldrums and into the trade winds again unscathed and in front,” he said. “For this to happen it will be a long night for the guys spotting clouds, and squalls, changing sails and maximising speed whenever we can.
As different as night and day (from Groupama Sailing Team)
The die certainly isn't cast yet, because nothing's going right at the head of the fleet: the three leaders have stumbled into a zone of calm in the middle of the night. Indeed the sailing conditions are very different to the North of Brazil and Groupama 4 has considerably reduced her deficit as she too approaches the Doldrums. Will she be any quicker in traversing this zone? Answer on Tuesday evening...
Everyone agrees that the Doldrums to the North of Brazil are simply an accumulation of clouds, but the breeze is still around, despite easing slightly. Not a bit of it! The head of the race has been caught up in a wind hole in the depths of the Brazilian night. The upshot of this was an almost complete standstill for the three leaders, who went from an average speed of around ten knots to less than four knots in a matter of minutes... The resulting gains for Groupama 4 were massive, and she managed to make up nearly thirty miles in three hours and closed to within twenty miles of the Emirati boat.
A nocturnal Doldrums
The Doldrums still remain a rather random phenomenon, which can build in a few hours and evaporate in a few minutes. Indeed this accumulation of clouds with its volatile behaviour can pile up all of a sudden to form an enormous cumulonimbus, which bars the way forward with no way out until it has imploded on site. At that point it can disappear, split, disperse and then clump back together again in front, behind, to the left or to the right. As such it's impossible to anticipate this vague mass, which can bring even the fastest yachts in the world to an abrupt halt for hours on end. Indeed the very intense heat, which reigns at the equator, can cause high evaporation whilst the sun is at the zenith, then the clouds form towards the end of the day to unload their excess water in the middle of the night as the temperature drops.
This diurnal-nocturnal cycle indicates that it's easier to traverse the Doldrums by day rather than by night, especially as the daylight hours provide greater visibility of the sky so as the crew can alter course if the road ahead looks somewhat ominous. Indeed on this Mayday, the moon is only in its first quarter and only gives off a rather pale light in the second half of the night. As such it's hard to make out the canopy of heaven when dark squalls are blocking the whole horizon... Subsequently, the leaders had a very bad night and weren't able to find their way out of this `tunnel' until this lunchtime (European time). The Americans no longer have a comfortable buffer in front of the New Zealanders and the Spanish as a result!
Opportunities prior to the finish
The current situation on the water is more balanced then, as Groupama 4 has been able to significantly reduce her deficit in relation to the frontrunners, who are less than a hundred miles ahead now. Furthermore, Franck Cammas and his men are now within a stone's throw of their first target: Abu Dhabi is just twelve miles in front of the French boat, which seems slightly more at ease in these conditions than the Emirati boat. Added to this, the Doldrums which these two VO-70s are set to tackle in the middle of the day (local time), should be less developed and, crucially, the two crews may well have an opportunity to skirt around the zone of calms in which the three leaders got stuck fast. Perhaps it'll be a remake of the second leg, when Groupama 4 and Puma were sidestepped to the East before the Maldives...?
This is a critical because there are about a hundred or so tricky miles to negotiate before they can latch onto the north-easterly tradewinds, which are pumping out around fifteen knots of breeze above 6°N. This Tuesday morning, Puma and Camper were seeking to extract themselves via the shortest possible route, to the North, whilst Telefonica was trying to extract herself to the North-West. As such Abu Dhabi and Groupama 4 have an opportunity to choose their camp since they are about twelve hours behind the leader. Last but not least, the tradewinds, which will push the fleet along once they're through the Doldrums, are only set to last for three days. As this system approaches the Caribbean arc, this easterly breeze will drop away considerably, easing from nearly twenty knots to less than ten knots. The more long-term forecasts suggest that the end of the course between Cuba and Florida will be extremely complex to fathom. With 2,300 miles to go to Miami, there is still a whole wealth of opportunities to upset the hierarchy...
