Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 1 Day 4

Ericsson moves into second place on day four of leg one in the Volvo Ocean Race © Rick Tomlinson / Ericsson Racing Team

Evenly matched

“The sea has finally flattened and the wind has died down sufficiently to stop the constant fire hosing on deck,” wrote skipper Neal McDonald from Ericsson who, by 1000 this morning, has now eased into second place. The team spent yesterday mending some broken bits and pieces and Richard Mason went over the side of the boat to clear a sheet that had tied itself into a knot around the rudder.

The leading pack of four, racing in leg one of the Volvo Ocean Race, are very evenly matched. They are now in the trade winds, gybing downwind. Brasil 1 (Torben Grael) has extended her lead to 33 nm. She gybed at 0755 this morning taking her closer to the rhumb line, but into less wind and her speed is dropping. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) has slipped to third position and fellow team mates on ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) are now in fourth. Both the Dutch teams are steering almost the same course, but out to the west of Ericsson and Brasil 1 where the wind is still stronger and they continue to make good speeds. The breeze will stay around 15 knots gradually veering east north-east.

Sunergy and Friends (Grant Wharington) is now tied up at the dock in Porto Santo, a small island close to Madeira. The team suspended racing at just after 0300 this morning and motored the two miles to the entrance of the harbour. The team reports that the boom needs some serious surgery. Once the repair is made, they will then return to the exact position that they suspended racing and rejoin the fleet racing to Cape Town.

Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard) and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) are now in port assessing the damage to their boats.

Position Report:

Update from Ericsson:

The sea has finally flattened and the wind has died down sufficiently to stop the constant fire hosing on deck. The sea temp is rapidly rising and the sun came out this afternoon. Things are looking up –Steve (Hayles – navigator) has even managed to dry up the key board and make it work!!!

On the race course the four remaining boats are surprisingly evenly matched. 15 miles separates four of us after over 1000 miles of hard sailing. The boys have had some time to mend some broken bits and Richard Mason went for a quick dip this afternoon to clear a sheet that had miraculously tied itself into a knot around the rudder.

Neal McDonald

Update from AMN AMRO ONE:

ABN AMRO ONE is barrelling along this morning, back on course and up to full speed again after one of the most eventful 48 hours in the crew’s sailing history. Only 12 hours into the race a catalogue of calamities unfolded leaving the crew battling to keep the boat in the race.

It all started when a crucial part of the steering mechanism snapped, leading to a massive wipe-out as the 70-foot boat careered out of control and ended up pinned on her side by the force of the sails. In the force of the knockdown, sailors, Tony Mutter and Jan Dekker were thrown violently backwards, knocking out the whole port-side steering pedestal on their way back along the cockpit.

There was more drama when a fire broke out in the hold. “We were downstairs and suddenly the boat quite literally filled with smoke”, said Skipper Mike Sanderson. “A bolt had rattled loose from the battery holder and it had shorted out between the positive terminal of the battery and the carbon skin of the boat. We were engulfed in smoke, and trying to get the battery cover off, and sure enough we had flames and the whole deal. It’s been an eventful day.”

“At one time we were losing the battle with the smoke, but we had to say, ‘hey, we either beat this or we’re into the life raft.’ So it was wet rags over the mouth and for me the quickest way to do that was to pull off my boot and use my sock over my mouth. We just had to get in there and get it under control.”

“What caused even more drama was that the 24 volt system shorted into the hull so it cooked all our wiring. So for a lot of the day we’ve been without any systems. Stan is looking at his navigation station with all the wires completely melted away. Being the genius that he is, if Stan can’t fix it, it’s technically broken. Unbelievably, he’s now got everything back up and running. He’s managed to rewire the comms system, computers, Satcom Cs, the B&G, the whole lot. So we’re back up and running. We’ve had a day of it!”

The crew were to suffer a further setback soon after when Dave Endean injured knee ligaments after being thrown to the floor during the storm. “During the night, Dave was thrown to the floor by as we hit a huge wave”, explains Helmsman, Sydney Gavignet. “Four of us had to carry him down below to a bunk. He has hurt his knee but he seems better now. He can’t come up on deck but he is still helping to look after the boat. He is repairing one of the two steering wheels broken by Tony and his 100 kilos when he was thrown against the steering wheel by the wind. Under that kind of attack, nothing will survive! In spite of that we are still on course and in the game.”

Problems began for the crew of ABN AMRO ONE when wind speeds picked up from 25 knots up to 35 knots. “Despite the issues on board these boats are everything we expected them to be. The tricky part is that most of time it’s down to 25 and then you’ll get a squall of 35. That makes it pretty tough. That’s how we tore out the steering pedestal, leaving a nasty hole. It’s not putting us in any danger but it means we’re on constant bailer watch, trying to clear out the back compartment” said Mike.

“We’re just trying to keep up with the pack until we can get on the other gybe, so we can fix the boat properly and get back up to full pace. We’re going to be able to fix it all. We’re looking forward to getting ABN AMRO ONE back to more or less the same condition as she was when we left the dock. It won’t look as pretty as when we left, but we can fix it.”

Despite all the unwanted drama, Moose professes to being less stressed now than he was before the start in Vigo. Much has been said about the differences in design philosophy between the broad, powerful ABN AMRO twins and the narrower Farr-designed boats. “For the first few hours after the start we were wondering, what have we got here?” admitted Moose. “And now, I think we’re finding we’ve got exactly what we thought we had. This boat is a very powerful brute that as soon as we can get her powered up she’s very fast. I’d certainly rather be talking to you now about all these dramas and knowing that we’ve got a very competitive boat for the Volvo Ocean Race. Put it this way, I’m a more relaxed man now than I was four days ago. Today I feel more confident, and I feel a sense of relief, that’s for sure.”

He is also delighted for Seb Josse and his team mates aboard ABN AMRO TWO, the early leaders of this race. While many have been shocked at just how competitive the high potential crew have proven to be, Moose certainly isn’t. “It doesn’t surprise us at all where they are in the fleet. I think many people have really underestimated how fast those guys have been and will continue to be in this race. That boat’s quick.”

Nor is he surprised at the drama elsewhere in the fleet, bearing in mind what he and the crew have had on their own plate these past two days. “We know that the Pirates and movistar are going to Portugal for keel issues. I can only assume everyone is having their problems. If we’re going to be like this every day we’re not going to make it. We’re going to be very old men at the end. We started with seven and now two have dropped out in the first 24 hours, so the chances of the rest getting all the way there are, well, I don’t know. We want to let everyone know how much we’ve got on out here, because this is tough. It really is unique.”

Update from Sunergy & Friends:

Well, not quite the story I'd like to write. We are tied up to the dock in Porto Santo, out of necessity. The boom, as discussed earlier (and you may have seen evidence in the way of photos sent off the boat just to prove that we were not making it up and wanted to stop for an Espresso and a croissant)...needs some serous surgery. At 03:02:45 we suspended racing about 2 miles on the south side of the island, close to the entrance of the harbour. Under the rules we are allowed to do this, but must return to the exact same spot to resume racing, but while we are tied up our competitors are sailing away from us at a great rate of knots.

Our only consolation is that we will be ship shape once repair is complete, so that will ease our minds a bit and we will not feel like we have to nurse the boat for the next 6000 miles, and also that due to the misfortune of the Pirates and Movistar our 5th place is not directly under threat. Not a very nice way to think but it is a reality.

We have taken the opportunity to have a good clean up, check over all our systems, and fix the head. Never a pleasant job to fix the head at sea... so a mixed blessing that we are at the dock to do this. Nearly a very embarrassing moment for yours truly, as a few test pumps (always, always always test pump a head at sea before you use it: to check that the previous occupant hasn't 'fessed up to their blockage and leaves you , quite literally in the poo, and being blamed for and having to rectify the previous occupants misuse of the device)...anyway, after a few test pumps the whole bloody handle came off in my hand.

A bemused expression and a bit of head scratching later, I deduced that it was not a good idea to use the loo, and had to resort to au naturale off the stern. My fellow crew were not so keen on that approach so there was a bit of a queue to the head once I had tackled the task and repaired with Scotty's (AKA George Clooney) assistance once we hit the dock. Easy fix: pull it apart, put it back together, screw the handle back on, check there are no parts left over, feed it a few splashes of olive oil (works wonders for a sticky handle that when pulled too hard tends to come off in your hand - I find cold pressed virgin olive oil works the best - another top tip on using a marine head), let someone else test it, and hey presto, we were in action, that handle was flying fast.

Now, the last person to use it (we suspect the youngest man on this race is the guilt party as he has not been seen for a few hours - not mentioning any names) made the fatal flaw of feeding a bit of TP into it (top tip #3: never, ever put anything that you have not previously eaten/digested into a marine toilet), and they are having to start all over again, but, with a bit more of a problem on their hands. I'll leave the rest to your vivid imagination.

OK, moving on, that is the second most exciting thing that is going to happen today. Top of the list is to get the boom back on board, stronger than ever, and charge on west. Our weather information combined with our routing software is telling us to head west as quickly as possible before turning left towards Fernando Island. Unfortunately this means that we will fall into line behind the four boats in front, so we will have to look for opportunities later down the track to try a little buffalo girls (buffalo girls go around the outside...etc) to rein the leaders in.

Signing off for the day, hoping that we are under way very soon. Rest assured that the team on Sunergy and Friends will work extremely hard to get back in the game.

Bye from Porto Santo, near Madeira.

Campbell Field - Navigator