12:48 AM Tue 16 Dec 2008 GMT
Volvo Ocean race Day 3 news from the boats.
ERICSSON 4 LEG THREE DAY 3 QFB: received 15.12.08 1500 GMT
A rather quiet and uneventful day today. We are experiencing very light breezes as we slowly sail across the southern coast of Sri Lanka. At the moment, we are sitting in first place with both Telef?nica Blue and Puma only a couple of miles to leeward. While we have generally been able to maintain a reasonable boatspeed though the water, adverse currents of up to 3 knots are really putting a halt to the distance we are covering over the ground.
Life onboard is back to the usual routine. Temperatures are warm and humid. Unfortunately, for me, these factors are combining perfectly to create a nice, sweaty rash (trench crutch) in a region I would rather prefer it wasn't!
Everyone is in high spirits and pleased to be pushing in the front pack of the fleet.
Hopefully wind conditions will improve so as to ensure that we won't be celebrating Christmas day aboard the good ship Ericsson 4.
That's it for now,
Ryan Godfrey
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KOSATKA TEAM RUSSIA LEG THREE DAY 3 QFB: received 15.12.08 0457 GMT
The first two days haven't been as we feared in our worst nightmares of no wind areas, just a few hours very light, but the breeze never died away completely.
The whole stretch to the western end of the Sri Lanka exclusion zone was very tactical and offered lots of opportunities to gain and lose and we had both. While getting off the start under A1 got us into second place, we lost the good position when we reached off too far from land in the land breeze off Quilon.
While we sailed into a light area there, the fleet benefitted from the stronger outflow close inshore. Once in the strait between mainland India and Sri Lanka it paid to sail low initially and we made good gains on the fleet, overtaking Ericsson 3. We were able to lay the mark while they had to gybe.
Now we are settling in for the 1000-mile beat to Sumatra against the northeast Monsoon where upwind speed will count most. Not a lot of wind shifts ahead, just the constant flow of wind coming from the wintery high pressure that covers most of northern Asia. The early seafarers did it the other way around, they followed the Monsoon, giving them an easy ride west in winter and back the other way the following summer.
It is great to race in sight of each other as it allows us for the first time to compare boat speed. Even though Kosatka is regarded as being a heavy weather boat, we were able to keep the pace in the light conditions. During the reach to the first waypoint, we felt slightly weak due to the lighter bulb and the light mode we are sailing in currently, even though we previously regarded it as a strength of the boat.
Andreas Hanakamp - skipper
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DELTA LLOYD LEG THREE DAY 2 QFB: received 14.12.08 2042 GMT
The weather brief that we received from our meteorologist, Fritz Koek, has been spot on so far on leg 3. The short sprint from the start, down to the virtual marks that Volvo laid to the south of Sri Lanka, would be full of geographically placed 'bands of wind' and 'bands of little wind':
From the start - A band of westerly sea breeze
No wind
A band of land breeze from the east
No wind
A band of strong 20-knot wind from the east that funnels between India and Sri Lanka
Little wind on the lee side of Sri Lanka as we round the first waypoint (this is where we are now)
The strategic implications of this brief?
After the first park up, of no wind, the first boats to sail south into the land breeze from the east would jump ahead of the fleet. Winning the first 6 hours of the race would be key in this Yo-Yo race. During the first park-up, the entire fleet was separated, on a north-south basis of only 1 or 2 miles. 2 miles was all it took for the leaders to leap ahead 30 miles as they got the land breeze first and sailed away from the boats that were still adrift - Yo.
It was the time for the boats at the back to play catch-up as the leaders sailed into the next parking lot. We were all separated by only a handful of miles yet again. Yo
The leaders got south into the strong funnelling wind from the east and zoomed away. Yo
Still blast reaching at 20 knots the trailing boats caught back up to the leaders. Yo
How many more 'Yos' are left in this leg? Plenty! Stay tuned.
Matt Gregory - navigator
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TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG THREE DAY 3 QFB: received 15.12.08 0735 GMT
As expected, the fleet has compressed again, after a fast ride along Sri Lanka. Last night we were close with four boats, all under spinnaker and I don't know how many times we gybed, to protect our 2nd place, as Ericsson 4 had slipped through our lee.
We were all heading to the 'pirate waypoint' and Si Fi (Simon Fisher - navigator) got a couple of extra grey hairs, since we were pretty close. The problem was that 2.5 knots of current pushed us down to the point, and of course you don't want to end up on the wrong side, as you than have to sail backwards, and go properly around the point. For some reason we lost Telef?nica Black who were only a hundred metres behind us. Either they had a bad sail change or ended up on the wrong side of the point, as all of sudden they were 3 miles behind us.
Now sailing upwind with our big Code Zero, and just hanging in. Puma is going the best, Ericsson 4 second best and unfortunately, we are the worst. Just a matter of being patient and wait for the conditions to change. Still we have a lot of current against us, nearly 3 knots which doesn't help our progress and course, but at least we have breeze, so still making miles in the right direction. Everybody is feeling well, and it is not too hot, although some will disagree, but we are a happy vessel.
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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