11:55 AM Thu 27 Nov 2008 GMT
Read the news from the boats in the Volvo Ocean Race. The fleet is heading to cichin, india on Leg 2 of the adventure.
GREEN DRAGON LEG TWO DAY 13 QFB: received 27.11.08 0842 GMT
At first light this morning, we came through a massive raincloud and poked our nose into a north-westerly breeze. This was the sign we were waiting for that we were exiting the doldrums for the second time this race. Fortunately, we seem to be quite good at getting through the doldrums, as we have climbed up the leaderboard to third.
It was an agonising 150 or so miles, where flat calms were interspersed with rainsqualls and wind from every part of the compass. We had two shocking clouds that stopped us in our track, but nothing compared with the hole, which engulfed Puma about 10 miles from us. We managed to just skirt it by 100 metres or so and gained about 15 miles in 2 hours - there was nothing Puma could do as a huge cell grew above them and stopped them dead.
We did have our bad moments - not least when I was steering and got caught in a downdraught under one cloud. It is the first time I have gone full circle in a boat without tacking or gybing - all in 20 knots as the lads furled the code zero. It culminated in us being stuck head to wind with our soon-to-be patented 'multiple bridle no boom mainsheet system' pinned in the middle and a spinnaker sheet wrapped around the rudder! 1 hour later the rain cleared the wind came back and we got going again - not very good.
So here we are, now in a drag race with Telef?nica Blue, who somehow managed to escape the wider doldrums in the west, Ericsson 3 who must look at how Ericsson 4 got away in disgust, and Delta Lloyd who we can see about 10 miles behind. Their crew changes seem to be working wonders as they are doing a great job. It is certainly still a fast boat.
Looking at the weather forecast there could be all sorts of fun and games to be had in the 735 miles to go and I wouldn't rule out anybody just now. For us we are really happy to be in a boat race after 10 days without a boom. It is funny that nobody seems to mention it anymore apart from the odd wise crack like 'ease the vang' or 'pull on the outhaul'. Oh how we laugh....
Ian Walker - skipper
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PUMA LEG TWO DAY 13 QFB: received 0734 GMT
I promised to not use the tag line 'Life at the Extreme' because it belongs to Volvo and if we all start using it too much it will get abused and not have the same impact.
Forget that. We are living sailing's 'Extremes'.
Windy running and reaching for a week, with incessant fire hose to the face on deck was quickly replaced by finesse sailing with the masthead genoa and a lot of heat. Below was aired out finally and the moisture was all but eliminated. I will tell you that the last 24 hours of the windy reaching was pretty bad down below. We had to have all the hatches and vents shut because so much water was coming over the deck. But, outside the sea temperature was about 29 c and the air temperature was not far from that as well. Foul weather gear was miserable to put on but completely necessary and below was a sauna. Yuck. Throw in 11 guys without showers for 10 or so days and you get my drift.
From quite windy and exhilarating sailing, to our second stint with the doldrums. For 'il mostro' we were on top of the world as we kept in one piece in the windy stuff and entering the doldrums we had moved up to third and could see second place Ericsson 3 about 3 miles away. Then came the first of many, many bad clouds and torrential rainsqualls with light, circling breeze in them. We watched Ericsson 3 simply sail away.
Later that day we saw a position report that the Dragons simply sailed right by us about 4 miles away and finally on the other side of us Delta Lloyd has sailed by as well. Unreal. I was told this doldrums place could be a killer, but I had no idea it could be this bad. And, believe me, we aren't trying to sail in the bad clouds. Just the opposite! We were in a virtual pinball machine of bad clouds. When we thought we had a good three hour run, the others did better. When we thought we had a bad three hour run (drifting and slatting), we were right. We took one on the chin and its now time to get back off the mat and start swinging again.
The weather reports at this point give us days of light air to go to Cochin.
I know our shore crew, who want to get into fixing the boat, are not going to be pleased to hear this. Looking at the GPS last night during one of our particularly bad times, we noticed that the estimated time of arrival to Cochin - using the speed the boat was going at the time- was Christmas day!
Yikes.
But, all aboard remain up beat. Although we have had a tough doldrums crossing so far, we all know that things can change in a heartbeat. We are counting on it and all on deck are completely in sync with trying to gain every inch possible.
Not too much else exciting to report. Happy Thanksgiving to all back in the States. It will be one of the first times that I can remember not being with my entire family on this day - so hello to all. There should be quite a bit more Turkey available for you today compared with other years.
Ken Read - skipper
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DELTA LLOYD LEG TWO DAY 12 QFB: received 26.11.08 1951 GMT
Let's see if I can sum up our day in the 5 minutes I have while waiting for our weather download from our satellite communication connection: this could be a difficult blog for me to write.to tap into the communication side of my brain, because the analytical side of my brain is working overtime today.
It was an awesome day. We've made massive gains on the entire fleet. All the work that we've done strategising about positioning our boat for 'Race 2' has paid off. We passed both Telef?nica Boats and are ahead of the Russians. Puma is 7 miles off our bow as I type this entry.
Today was a day of setting 'pick and rolls' off of clouds sailing in and out of rain squalls and an uncountable number of sail changes to quickly adapt to the changing conditions.
The rain was not only great for taking a quick warm fresh water shower, and the obligatory full body lathering of soap, but it was also a great opportunity to capture fresh water to relieve our injured water maker. Using our cooking kettles, we captured the water that flowed into the centre of our mainsail like a funnel.
I won't get any sleep tonight as we skip from cloud to cloud; this is full focus, high stakes racing in the navigator's hot seat. Gains and losses hinge on every decision and interpretation of weather data, radar imagery and gut feel.
Whoa.make that 2 minutes.Here comes a yellow blob on the radar screen.got to run.
Matt Gregory - navigator
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TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG TWO DAY 12 QFB: received 26.11.08 1608 GMT
Hi There,
It has been a long day on deck, hunting down the breeze and trying to make the most of each cloud in our path using the wind to try a push us a little further up the course.
Sadly, I don't think we are out of the woods yet either. It could be a long couple of days working our way out of our windless patch. Due to our broken daggerboard, we were forced further and further west of the fleet as we couldn't sail high and now, as a result, we probably are going to get a pretty tough run of it here in the Doldrums.
Frustrating? I here you ask... Of course, especially as this time we knew exactly where we needed to be but, by virtue of a breakage, we just couldn't get there. Still we haven't given up. It had been a really good day - everyone has been very motivated and positive even though the conditions have been tough.
We have gained ourselves a mascot today too. The little plastic horse that Xabi (Xabier Fernandez/ESP) got for his birthday on the first leg to remind him of his little boy, has made a return and has been aptly named 'Doldrum'! He is currently taking pride of place up on our cabin top pointing his way towards the new breeze. With any luck little Doldrum, the horse with his remarkable powers of balance (he doesn't fall over too often given the swell), is hopefully going to give us the luck we need to get out of here!
Far away from the Doldrums, however, and our windless predicament, there is one person we need to say congratulations too. We got news on the boat today that Tom our weather guru has just become a father for the second time so congratulations from all of us on Telef?nica Blue! I hope you and the family are all well back in Sydney and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Cheers,
Simon Fisher - navigator
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TEAM RUSSIA LEG TWO DAY 12 QFB: received 26.11.08 1408 GMT
Had a new experience yesterday, when a flying fish landed in my sailing boot.
Unfortunately, the boot was on my foot and the fish was caught between the boot and my leg. Of course, I didn't know it was a flying fish, it could have been anything, in the middle of a pitch-black night on the Indian Ocean and it didn't feel comfortable as well.
You could have seen me jumping around trying to get rid of my boot. Anyway, poor fish, caught in a sailor's boot after 10days at sea. I don't think any creature can survive the conditions. After my foot escaped the boot, the fish did as well and I have thrown him into the water, good luck little fish.
The wind Gods favour us at the moment. We still have a light breeze that pushes us towards India. Just the future looks grim, endless calms spreading all over the Northern Indian Ocean. Still, the sailing is very intense, as the boat requires a lot of attention to squeeze every possible knot out of the light winds.
With the warmer weather, we are not being electrocuted so often when touching anything on board the boat, but our keel system doesn't like it dry as the electronics there started to play up. We are back to manual - power assisted operation.
Andreas Hanakamp - skipper
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by Various Volvo Ocean Race competitors
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Cape Leeuwin, WA
Foiling - Components (Wings,Masts,etc)
