12:35 PM Wed 21 Jan 2009 GMT
News from the Volvo Ocean Race fleet on Day 4 of their Leg 4 journey to China.
DELTA LLOYD LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0958 GMT
Hi all,
The first manoeuvres have been taken place today: three tacks! Getting closer to the coast of Malaysia/Brunei, it gave us the impression that near the shore the conditions were less favourable. On one side, the shallows didn't look friendly and we expected the wind to be less and more NE along the shore.
We tacked in a dark, squally night and moved towards more offshore regions. We had to tack twice more to manoeuvre into a safe position - referring to the many shallow places around here - and into a stronger breeze. At this moment, we are experiencing some decreasing wind speeds, but still more than 10 knots.
Our wind will arrive shortly... Even more in a couple of days.
Being new onboard such a racer, I'm trying to get into the rhythm of the daily routines. Having said that, with the parts that don't work properly in the nav-station and a limping satellite system (not our fault) I have to work with, I spend a lot of time in the nav station.
In between every three-hour report, I try to 'sleep' - what a NOISY boats these are - and eat and drink sufficiently. Food is not gourmet, but all right. Unfortunately a series of rotten freeze-dried food was packed, so we have to be careful with our choices and rations.
For now, we are looking ahead to a relative quiet night with NE'ly winds around 15 knots.
Cheers,
Frits Koek - navigator
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TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 1034 GMT
We were passed on both the left and the right side, not a good day for the blue boat. We were parked for a long time, a finally got moving again this afternoon.
The good news is that we have a good push from the current, in the right direction. The boats all have spread out now, some staying more offshore and some going towards the Philippines. Offshore there is more breeze, but a less favourable shift, inshore maybe less pressure (that is what I hope).
There is still more than 35 hours to go the waypoint and all upwind. The sun is out, and a very nice temperature, at least that is right and all the boys are well, eating and drinking plenty, so that is a good sign.
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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GREEN DRAGON LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0702 GMT
It's not often that I am lost for words, but I have little to say today. We continue to plod upwind and even had the excitement of some tacks, which came in a bit of a flurry as we were hit by one big shift after another this morning.
It seems Ericsson 3 has done a really nice job of footing into the right hand shift and has managed to consolidate their gains. We have also slipped past Delta Lloyd in our own private battle, but it remains very close. The wind is clearly very variable for the leaders and we have to hope this may help us to catch up some miles.
Onboard life is pretty easy, with few sail changes and only a few tacks. Even the freeze-dried food tastes better, so I must be getting used to 'offshore life'.
We have hit some quite considerable amount of debris in the water and have just removed a bamboo shoot from the daggerboard but, so far, nothing has led to any damage that we know of. The boat remains in perfect shape although it is quite clear she is happier sailing downwind than up. That goes for all the sailors too!
Ian Walker - skipper
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PUMA LEG FOUR DAY 4 QFB: received 21.01.09 0328 GMT
This is going to be the leg that, at least up until now, is defined by who is 'picked'. You know, like a pick in basketball where a big guy stands there and the offensive player runs around the big guy and his defensive person is cleaned off him. I think a lot of sports use 'picks'. Add sailing to the list.
It really started when we were leaving Singapore and there were a ton of ships. We were sailing along about five lengths to windward of Ericsson 4 and we could just make it to weather of a 1000-foot anchored super-tanker. They couldn't; the ship was a pick. They had to go under and we took the lead. A lead we would keep for a day and a half.
So now comes the 'reef-style' picks. We were going upwind for about a day and a half with Ericsson 4 about a mile and a half behind. Approaching the North Lucoma Shoals the water depth goes from 1000 metres to three metres. We had three charts of these shoals and one said we could go through the middle, one said maybe and one said no way. We chose the 'no way', and along with a breeze header, had to dip the shoal along with Ericsson 4.
Telefonica Blue on the other hand was far enough behind, and sailed in the next wind shift, which was a lift, and got around the top of the shoals gaining five miles in the process. A bummer for us, good for them - and the 'good' news is there are about a thousand of these shoals all over the South China Sea. Many, many more 'picks' to come. One final factoid about all these 'picks' - the accuracy of the charts is absolutely in question and supposedly there are a lot of reefs that are unmarked out here. As if there wasn't enough on this leg to make my stomach turn...
Of course, you could go way out and around this massive area of shoals but that would be a race loser. We will all be short tacking through the shoals and reefs. From thousands of metres of depth to virtually nothing. Really fun at night especially!
As all these last legs have done, the wind has gone light and it is very mixed up with black rain clouds and big shifts. It's all about the luck of the draw right now and the boats behind have had a nice opportunity to get right back into the game with the lead boats hitting the lighter airs first. I know this sounds like a broken record, but I can say that in these last couple of legs, the rainsqualls have made or broken the legs for all. A little skill, a lot of luck. Both are needed.
So, we will keep plugging away. Our lead evaporated and the restart complete. Time to get our heads back into the game. And try to avoid the 'picks'.
Kenny Read - skipper
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