2:13 AM Wed 15 Apr 2009 GMT
A 330-nautical mile run in 24 hours is pedestrian for the Volvo Open 70 yacht, but it's been enough to push Ericsson 4 onto the stern of Telef?nica Blue in the battle for the fleet lead on Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
The Spanish boat has held the lead since Sunday morning, but overall race leader Ericsson 4, skippered by Brazilian Torben Grael, has steadily closed the gap. In the past 24 hours Ericsson 4 has halved its deficit to eight nautical miles at the 1307 GMT position report.
'A couple of active cumulus clouds kept us busy last night but seem to have done us no harm as we managed to gain some ground on Telefonica Blue and open up a few miles on the chasing Ericsson 3, Puma and Telef?nica Black, with whom we had spent most of yesterday,' said Ericsson 4 bowman Ryan Godfrey.
Grael's International crew separated from the pack in a cloud line, while Ericsson 3 languished behind.
'We have lost a lot to most of our opponents. Most obvious, we lost a lot to Ericsson 4, which had been just beside us for a long time,' said Ericsson 3 media crewman Gustav Morin.
'We are generally trying to avoid the big squalls, but it seems that we sometimes just have to go straight into them,' Morin continued. 'Once early this morning we were really happy to avoid a big cloud while Ericsson 4 didn't. Unfortunately for us, they got more wind inside the cloud and took of a couple of miles while we were lying still with no breeze at all.'
The fleet is making way towards Ilha de Fernando de Noronha, an island about 200 nautical miles northeast of Natal, Brazil, and the lone scoring gate of the leg. The gate stretches eastward from the island along a line of latitude. The first boat earns 4 points and each boat thereafter a half-point less.
At today's position report, the wind was blowing mostly from the east-northeast between 10 and 12 knots, fast reaching conditions for the VO70s whose boatspeeds were nearly equal to the windspeeds. But the wind is forecast to soften tomorrow and the crews will have to chase the cloud lines in the search for pressure.
'The next 18 to 24 hours or so will be mainly a boatspeed test and some careful cloud management,' said team meteorologist Chris Bedford. 'Tomorrow, there could be nervous times for everyone while the breeze goes into a 12- to 24-hour period of less than 10 knots and possibly down to 5 or 6 knots at times. Also, another batch of squalls is expected with a shake-up possible from that. Once through the light spot, the final 24 hours into the scoring gate look reasonably good with recovering east-southeast/southeast pressure, but still a few squalls around to possibly mix things up.'
The fleet departed Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Saturday afternoon and is expected at the scoring gate on Thursday night.
Sailing approximately 170 nautical miles southeast of Salvador, Brazil, means the yachts are navigating the many oil rigs off the Brazilian coastline.
'It's quite impressive how the oil industry has grown around this area with a large amount of oil rigs and ships around. They look like cities when you see them in the distance at night,' said Ericsson 4 trimmer Horacio Carabelli.
'The temperature has been rising as we get closer to the Equator,' Carabelli continued. 'There have been a lot of dolphins around, jumping like crazy and going in all directions, probably feeding. They paid a bit of attention on our yacht, but soon they went back to their fishing business.'
ERICSSON 4 LEG SIX DAY 4 QFB: received 14.04.09 1437 GMT
Good afternoon sports fans.
Well here we go again. Four hours on, four hours off. Life has quickly returned to its usual routine aboard Ericsson 4 and after a couple of days getting into the swing of things, our bodies have adjusted back to our watch system and the time is flying by.
Matters are also made better by the fact that we now have a decent strength breeze and are making reasonable speed towards Fernando de Noronha. A couple of active cumulus clouds kept us busy last night but seem to have done us no harm as we managed to gain some ground on Telef?nica Blue and open up a few miles on the chasing Ericsson 3, Puma and Telef?nica Black, with whom we had spent most of yesterday.
Conditions are pretty warm and humid down below but our trusty bedside fans are serving us well. Also, I dare not complain about the heat as it's looking like near freezing conditions for the approach into Boston. I personally would much rather be hot with warm sea temperatures than bitterly cold with water around the 5 degree Celsius mark that we are expecting. As such I will save my whinging for later this leg.
The only real situation aboard has been the scent of Stu's (Stu Bannatyne) socks that has turned to near gag inducing. Quite an achievement considering that we have only been at sea for 50 odd hours! Hopefully we have rectified the situation by banishing the socks to above decks and getting Stu to do some work on the foredeck in the hope that the extra water up there might give his shoes a much needed flushing.
That's all for now.
Ryan Godfrey - bowman
ERICSSON 3 LEG SIX DAY 4 QFB: received 14.04.09 1339 GMT
This morning I said to Magnus Olsson: 'Have you thought about that it is only about two months until we will arrive in Stockholm?'
He instantly changed from the smiling Magnus we are used to, to become very serious. He answered with a grumpy face and his head down: 'I know, it feels tragical. I don't want to think about it. Can't we just continue and make another lap straight away?'
'So you would actually want to do that?' I asked.
'Of course, without a doubt!'
I would say that everyone onboard Ericsson 3 is pretty enthusiastic about sailing, and many of us are not saying that we won't do this race again. But no one is as clear about it as Magnus.
We have not been sailing very well the last couple of hours. But it has been very tricky conditions with a lot of squalls and we have all the time been on the limit of the range between two sails. I think we have changed from the mast head zero to a smaller headsail about six times in four hours.
We have also lost a lot to most of our opponents. Most obvious we lost a lot to Ericsson 4 who had been just beside us for a long time.
We are generally trying to avoid the big squalls but it seems that we sometimes just have to go straight into them. Once, early this morning, we were really happy to being able to avoid a big cloud while Ericsson 4 didn't.
Unfortunately for us they got more wind inside the cloud and took of a couple of miles while we were lying still with no breeze at all. It is very tricky to foresee which cloud will pay off to hit and which will not.
Gustav Morin
VOLVO OCEAN RACE LEG 6 LEADERBOARD
(At 1307 GMT, Apr. 14, 2009)
1. Telef?nica Blue, 4,232 nautical miles to finish
2. Ericsson 4, +8 NM
3. Delta Lloyd, +14 NM
4. Ericsson 3, +20 NM
5. Telef?nica Black, +21 NM
6. Puma, +25 NM
7. Green Dragon, +32 NM
www.volvooceanrace.org
by Ericsson Racing Team
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