Fleet reshuffles but progress is slow

1:06 AM Tue 16 Dec 2008 GMT

'Damian Foxall onboard Green Dragon - leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race' Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race &copy Click Here to view large photo

Progress has been slow for the Volvo Ocean Race fleet, having barely covered 500 miles since the start of leg 3 on Saturday. The fleet is sailing at an average speed of 7 knots, fighting against a current of 3 knots.

Overall race leader Ericsson 4 has taken the lead with PUMA making the best progress jumping to second place just 1 mile behind Torben Grael and his crew. Green Dragon has held onto seventh position and is now 26 miles behind the leader.

After passing the southern tip of India, the fleet has been racing south towards a waypoint south of Sri Lanka. This waypoint was put in place in order to move the fleet away from any areas of known piracy. Once the waypoint is reached, the fleet will make the move north as they head towards the Bay of Bengal.

The next seven days hold a long beat as the fleet races east, towards the northern tip of Sumatra. For the crews, this is looking like a long thousand miles. They are used to covering this kind of distance in 3-4 days in the Southern Ocean. This section of the leg also spells issues for those who were hoping to get into Singapore before Christmas day!

It is unlikely that there will be any stealth play this leg due to the short distance.

Jennifer Lilly, Race Meteorologist, informs about the weather conditions for the coming hours: 'While there was a brief surge of northeasterly winds between Sri Lanka and India, which drove both the wind speeds and boat speeds over 20 knots, the outlook for the next 4 days shows the wind speeds staying between 5 and 15 knots. Looking a little closer, the fleet can expect winds near 10 knots for Monday, building slightly on Tuesday, and then filling to the mid teens on Wednesday. The direction will range between NNE and ESE, and the likelihood of squalls will increase as the fleet continues east'.
The classification has radically changed since the last position report. The leading pack formed by Ericsson 4, PUMA and Telefonica Blue are just within a 5 nm radius whilst the chasing pack formed by Ericsson 3, Telefonica Black, Team Russia and Green Dragon are sailing within a 6 nm radius and 20 miles away from the leaders.

A lot of points are up for grabs, the first one crossing the line at Palau We (Indonesia) will get 4 points and the rest, 3.5, 3, 2.5 as in the previous leg. Then, on arrival in Singapore: 8, 7, 6, 5, etc.

www.greendragonracing.com

by Lucy Harwood

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