3:41 AM Sat 28 Feb 2009 GMT
In the latest news from the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, Fiji is the centre of attention and decisions must be made as to which way to tackle the islands. Read on ...
TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 14 QFB: received 27.02.09 1717 GMT
We had the made the choice yesterday to sail in between the Fiji islands. To our big surprise, Puma followed us, which we hadn't expected.
We think we will lose out against the boats out in the east, and most likely we have to play catch up after this passage, not much we can do about it.
The sky has been extremely clear tonight. OK, we still had our occasional shower, but mainly a view on billions of stars.
So the game has started, we are short tacking, and soon we will enter the Kalou passage (round the island passage). One thing for sure, it will be a beautiful sight, as the sun will come up soon. Of course we have been looking a bit ahead as well, and the southern ocean doesn't look vey promising yet as there are westerlies, hopefully the models are not correct, but if this is the case, than this leg might take well over 40 days.
Food wise we are ok, fuel we think we have enough, but the stop in Rio becomes way to short.
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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GREEN DRAGON LEG FIVE DAY 14 QFB: received 27.02.09 0803 GMT
Who would have thought Fiji would have such a big part to play in determining the strategy in leg five. I didn't even know exactly where Fiji was when we left China two weeks ago! Now I am cross examining every member of the crew who has ever been there on holiday trying to find out the nature of the island and the possible local effects on any wind.
Chris Main tells me his brother-in-law Brad Jackson, watch leader on Ericsson 4 got married there, so may be he has an advantage over the rest of us! Fiji represents a 200-mile wide obstacle, right in the line of where we all want to pass. On the last position report Puma and Telef?nica Blue seemed to have made the decision to foot below Fiji to the west. One thing for certain is they will gain many miles over the next couple of days whilst anybody else fights and probably has to tack to pass to the east.
In theory we should pull all these miles back and more by sailing in more wind over the next week. Fortunately for us we are the furthest east, so if we have to tack to get round Fiji it will be for less time than any others who come this way. We are committed to the east which has paid us such huge dividends over the last week.
We have constantly had more wind than anybody west of us and we should be very close to Ericsson 4 and Ericsson 3 if they continue to try and get east of Fiji. They may now alter their strategy to stick with the others.
All of this is great news for the Dragon as long as we do not get too headed in the next 12 hours which would extend our starboard tack time. We have a good chance to get a lot of leverage over some of the fleet. It will look like we have fallen way behind, but this will take a week to 10 days to play out.
Leg five has just got all the more interesting for all the armchair navigators back home.
Oh yes I forgot to say that Fiji marks the 1/3 point in terms of mileage for this leg. It has taken two weeks to sail the 4600 miles to Fiji, so, with a bit of luck we could be finished in a month!
Finally, I should wish my wife a Happy Birthday and apologise for yet again missing it - I know I said this last year but I promise I will make up for it next year Lisa!
Ian Walker - skipper
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PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 13 QFB: received 26.02.09 1729 GMT
The days are clearly starting to tick away, and I believe we have our friends on Ericsson 3 to thank for that.
Literally we are in a race with them which couldn't be closer. I have won or lost by larger margins on 12 mile windward leewards at Key West Race Week.
They get us a bit, we get them a bit. Bottom line, we are glued to each other.
So what does that do? Sure does heighten the concentration and awareness. We probably do more sail changes than we would if we were on our own (maybe).
Constant watching the radar to see our progress and check modes, and much more chatter and trim about the job at hand. Even Jerry (Jerry Kirby) has cut down a bit on the stories in order to be vigilant. Sure, I wish they were about 300 miles astern, but at the same time we are probably helping each other sail more efficiently and aggressively - and certainly passing the time quicker than we would be on our own.
As for general strategy, we have a pretty large island called Fiji smack in the way. A bit of precarious weather around the island will make for a huge gain or loss depending if you guess right for the short or long term. Capey (Andrew Cape - navigator) has been wracking his brain overtime trying to figure this one out. As always, I sit there and throw as many questions at him possible to try and get all options on the table. We shall see how this one settles out.
Besides that, life is pretty calm on the yacht. Twelve knot winds, hard on the wind on port tack makes for painfully slow mileage but that is what we have in the 'upwind around the world race'. Hopefully the wind gods smile on us soon and free us up, but it doesn't look like that will happen for a while. Until then, it is back to hand to hand battle with Ericsson 3.
Kenny Read - skipper
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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 14 QFB: received 27.02.09 1203 GMT
Pretty uneventful day onboard Ericsson 4 - that is until earlier this evening, when in the space of one hour, we had our code zero downstairs getting repaired and a huge tactical dilemma on our hands.
We had just hoisted the code zero and were still in the pack up stages of the genoa we had dropped, when there was a loud bang. The tack of the code zero had come away from the boat and now this huge free flying, overlapped genoa was flapping behind the mainsail. We dropped it promptly and went straight into hoisting the sail we had only dropped moments before. Luckily the separation wasn't a sail failure, but we did find a few small tears in the sail and rolled it up and posted it downstairs so that Ryan (Ryan Godfrey) could work his magic with the sewing machine. Before we knew it, the small tears had been repaired and the sail was being wooled on deck so that it's ready to go once more - this sail is usually furled up to make it manageable to hoist and drop. The one major casualty luckily was the furling unit which is well beyond repair, luckily as it could have easily damaged one of the crew and, with a sail with that much load, it would have been very serious damage!
Then, as the sail was being packed on deck, the latest sched came through to reveal a slight split in the fleet around Fiji. This has forced some tactical decisions and looking at routes and weather but there seems no reason to change our game plan. This could quite easily see the leg decided for some boats here - hopefully in our favour - after all, Fiji has been visited by many of the crew and all have very positive memories - especially Brad (Brad Jackson) who got married in Fiji - so hopefully the islands will be nice to us
Guy Salter - MCM
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ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 14 QFB: received 27.02.09 1143 GMT
There is an island in our way. Fiji has not suddenly popped up, but we have always liked the east because there is more breeze there, even though it has taken us on a course towards the middle of this 260 nautical mile wide obstacle.
Now we have to choose side, very late. The models do not favour the west at all, showing huge zones of no wind there over the next couple of days. However, we do not expect the models to be very accurate in this area. A cluster of clouds can quickly make a boat zero or hero.
If we want to be east, we will have to beat upwind for many hours in light breeze, which will be very expensive. So take a probable big loss by going west, but with a chance to sneak through without too much pain? Or invest even more in the east and take a certain short term loss of maybe 12 hours to stay in an area where the probability for more consistent breeze is higher than in the west?
Or, go between the islands? It is a d?j?-vu with the 'Dangerous Ground' from the last leg really, with a big unsurveyed area. There are still charts though, but we don't trust them so we will try to stay away from there.
There are good opportunities to look stupid over the next two days.
Until now everyone has been sailing quite high, staying as much to the east as they can, so who will be the first to peel off to the west? A bit more anxiety before each position report now.
Aksel Magdahl - navigator
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