11:34 PM Sun 17 May 2009 GMT
 | | 'Heavy fog sets in as the fleet head out at the start of leg 7 from Boston to Galway'
Rick Tomlinson © |
For the fleet racing in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race, the final ocean leg before three coastal legs take the race to its conclusion in St Petersburg in late June, the city of Boston is long forgotten and so is the whale exclusion zone. It's the fog that they have to concentrate on.
At 1300 GMT today, Puma was leading the pack briskly east towards Cape Sable Island, a small Canadian island located at the southernmost point of the Nova Scotia peninsula, in around 20 knots of south-southeasterly breeze. They have around 400 nm to run to the scoring gate set off Newfoundland.
Only 11 nautical miles separate the fleet from first to last and six nautical miles from north to south. Telef?nica Blue is furthest to the north with Puma alongside. Further south is Ericsson 4 with Green Dragon to her south, but 10 miles astern. Ericsson 3 and Delta Lloyd are further south again and Fernando Ech?varri with Telef?nica Black has taken the most southerly route.
Green Dragon's tactics are being partially controlled by the 200,000 players in the Volvo Ocean Race online game. Every 12 hours during this leg, the virtual skippers in the race are sent a poll from Green Dragon. It includes a description of their current situation, such as details on weather conditions, boat condition and the crew, as well as an outlook for the next 24/26/48/72 hours. Each poll includes at least three options for the Green Dragon crew to take. Green Dragon can then, at the discretion of skipper Ian Walker or navigator Ian Moore, follow the guidance of the online community. If the team decides not to take the advice, they will send an explanation to the gaming community for their reasoning.
Late last night, Ian Walker sent his second question to be polled by the gaming community. The first one received over 10,000 votes. 'It will be fascinating to see how the gaming community's choices compare with the decisions Ian Moore and I make onboard,' he said.
Right from the start, and throughout the first night, fog has been causing some anxious moments in the fleet. In the first hour of the leg, immediately after the start inside Boston Harbour, a huge tanker loomed out of the mist, straight into the path of the racing fleet.
'When there were only a couple of minutes left to the mark, we suddenly saw an enormous tanker coming out from the mist and steering straight towards us. It was surrounded by police boats with screaming sirens and I think the captain was pretty irritated when we tacked straight in front of the ship to quickly go around the mark,' explained MCM Gustav Morin onboard Ericsson 3.
Fog is one of the worst hazards at sea and it means constant radar watch.
However, radar does not pick up the dozens of lobster pots, which littered the area just after the fleet set out into the open ocean, and in his first 20 minutes on deck, Neal McDonald from Green Dragon had to avoid 15 of them.
At just after midnight GMT, Ericsson 3 was again reporting very dense fog. 'We had Magnus Olsson on the bow looking for crossing boats sailing out of the channel,' explained navigator Aksel Magdahl.
While onboard Telef?nica Blue, skipper Bouwe Bekking described a near miss with a powerboat just after the start, which came with centimetres of the blue boat. 'It could have been very ugly,' Bekking said.
Sistership Telef?nica Black passed very close to some fishing boats. 'They suddenly appear on the radar screen, but are well hidden in the fog,' wrote navigator Roger Nilson, who went on to explain that fog is common in this part of the world as the warm, southerly winds spread over the cold water. 'Probably the fog will stay until after the Grand Banks, where the water will be warmer due to the Gulf Stream,' he said.
Ericsson 4 Leg Seven Day 2 QFB: received 17.5.09 1457 GMT
It's all come as a bit of a shock to the system. Back onboard and trying to slip back into the routines which will once again be second nature in a day or so. But there are a lot of moments of D?j? vu.
The temperature drop was sudden - just a couple of hours after the start and I was in two thermal layers and a mid layer - close to the max worn in the southern ocean! Warm hats and balaclava's plus gloves are essential on deck.
The thick chilling fog that descended whilst we were Boston Harbour lifted just before sunrise, it was the first time that the weather had not played ball during the Boston stopover after the beautiful sunny weekends - perfect for the thousands of spectators who showed up to support us.
I will always remember the bow of the ship looming out of the fog as we rounded the top mark. The Delta Lloyd boys suffered the most and I'm sure the language on the bridge of the ship would have been pretty blue when the whole Volvo fleet squeezed in front of the vessel - it was almost like the Malacca Straits again (forgetting the fog and the vast temperature difference).
Daylight came early onboard the yacht and we can see six boats clearly - all lined up off the coast of Nova Scotia. The last time I was this close to Nova Scotia was on a Marblehead to Halifax race in the 90s, it was a LOT warmer then but was very foggy and it had taken us a couple of days to get this far!.
The sky is grey and gives the feeling of cold weather - I'm sure that if the sky were blue but the temperature was the same, we would feel a lot warmer!
We are jib reaching along and keep sailing through vast areas of Lobster pots - many of which we managed to hook up on the keel, daggerboard and rudders - luckily they seemed to come off relatively easily - but not before that 'jaws' moment of the large buoys chasing the boat before they are sucked round the foils to their freedom. I can't imagine that the forward edges of our foils are in the same immaculate shape as they were less than 24hrs ago when we started.
We can see that the other boats are weaving their way through the lobster pot field. I mentioned to Tony Mutter that there must be a lot of lobster in the area.
'Or maybe not!' he replied. I'd be amazed that the number of lobster is stable after the amount I saw on the menu in the New England area many of which ended up on my plate!). There are several people who help by farming lobster and I know I would be happier if I knew I was eating from a sustainable lobster source.
We are expecting a little more wind in the next few hours and with those even colder temperatures onboard. Hope it doesn't get too much colder as there isn't that much clothing left in my bag - and I'm the sort of person who feels warmer in the knowledge that I have at least one more item to go - if I wear everything and feel cold then I know that I won't be getting any warmer!
Guy Salter MCM
---------------------
 | Green Dragon in the fog. Volvo Ocean Race Leg 7 start - Boston to Galway - Leighton O'Connor © |
Leg Seven Day 2: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
1. Puma Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) DTF 2513 nm
2. Telef?nica Black ESP (Fernando Ech?varri/ESP) +1
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +1
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +1
5. Telef?nica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +2
6. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Berm?dez/ESP) +7
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +11
www.volvooceanrace.org
by Volvo Ocean Race media
Click on thumbnails to enlarge and find more photos:
  |
Marion Reef, QLD
