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7:37 PM Sun 22 Mar 2009 GMT
 | 'Telefonica Blue at sunset, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro
The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain, on 4 October 2008, it will, for the first time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the history of the race. Spanning some 3'
Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race © |
AFTERNOON REPORT, LEG 5, DAY 37
It's turned into a slow motion race to Rio. High pressure is blocking the front runners from a quick passage to the finish line and the final stage of this marathon leg is turning into a challenge bigger than anyone anticipated.
For the leg-leading Ericsson 3, the situation is compounded by the fact that those behind have been making better speeds for much of the weekend. That's not the case anymore, but their lead has been compromised significantly. Ericsson 4 is now just 60 miles behind.
Horacio Carabelli wrote in on Sunday to report on the slow progress the chasing Ericsson 4 is making and the impact that is having on their food supplies.
'We are slowly progressing towards Rio and we still have a lot to go,' he wrote. 'I've been sailing along this coast a good part of my life and normally, to Rio is a light upwind trip in this time of the year unless you catch a front coming from South. Sailing itself has been pleasant in moderate winds, flat water and quite clear skies, much better than 3-4 days ago where we were fully dressed with all the underlayers we had availiable.
'Nipper has reorganised the food for the second time, every time making the day bag emptier!! So it will be a painful 800 miles from here. The distance between the boats has changed quite a bit as we pass through the west of a high pressure area, gaining and losing on each sked, difficult to say what will happen and at the end we have to deal with the approach to Guanabara Bay that can be very tricky. According to the planning we should be in by the 25th at noon, so if we are lucky we have three more nights left...'
A look at the 2D tracker shows what the boats are dealing with. Flick on the weather overlay and you can see the westerly sector of the high pressure system Horacio was referring to is bringing light northerly winds. That means upwind sailing for today. Relief does come from the forecast however. If you play the race forward by one day, the wind veers around to the right, allowing freer sailing on starboard tack by this time tomorrow. But that doesn't make today any easier.
'The gods are taunting us today, and I wonder what did we do to displease them?' was the way Rick Deppe put it on Puma. 'Making very slow progress towards Rio as we find ourselves tacking upwind in a very light breeze. It's really frustrating because we're not really used to going this slowly on our high speed il mostro, especially in the last month of sailing when we have never really stopped! I don't even think the guys would care if we were going upwind in breeze today just so long as we were making meaningful progress toward Rio.'
How slow has the progress been? Take a look in the Data Centre for an indication. Only one boat has a 24 hour run over 300 miles, and that's Telefonica Blue at the back of the fleet and enjoying a completely different weather pattern. The leading trio has been mired in sub-200 mile days.
'Plodding along at a snail's pace right now, frustrated because we can't make any real progress on the Ericsson boats and are making painfully slow progress on the finish line,' wrote Ken Read from il mostro, after recovering from a 36-hour stomach bug. 'At least if we are to be out here longer than projected, give us a weather window to make a run at the two leaders! A simple delivery from here is no fun. 800 plus miles to go, and we are light air upwind at the moment, making very little ground.'
Onboard the Telefonica Blue boat though, the news is more positive and the team is gaining major traction on Green Dragon, now just 240 miles ahead - still a significant advantage, but much smaller than it was coming into the weekend.
'We are 'lucky', as we have tonight a breeze very close to being in the right range of our J4 jib,' was the explanation from Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking. 'The last 48 hours we have been sailing in the so-called no-mans-land, as we couldn't have the right jib up, meaning sailing only at around 85% of our optimum. So even though it is a bumpy ride, we are making ok progress and the performance numbers are better, even though we are still on the wind. Within a day from now the breeze will start lighten off, but lift which means less water over the deck and probably better progress, as we can hoist our big code 0.'
The end result should be a closer spread across the finish times for the fleet compared to the rounding at Cape Horn. 753 miles to go for Ericsson 3 and the finish can't come soon enough.
by Volvo Ocean Race Media
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