7:53 PM Thu 18 Dec 2008 GMT
On Day 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, the boats are heading to Singapore in hot,humid and squally conditions.
PUMA LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 0956 GMT
The Bay of Bengal. Bringing these boats here for this leg is like using a Ferrari for a Tractor Pull. Slogging upwind, tacking on every shift for days. In fact, for one 24-hour period we had 51 squalls come through bringing rain, shift, no shift, wind, no wind etc. You get my drift. Mix in the heat and humidity and you have a real glamorous sailing spot at this moment in time.
Great news is the conditions are evening out and the squalls are far less frequent. In fact the fleet is lining up and starting to leg it out for the northwest corner of Indonesia and Sumatra. We were joking on the rail that every place we now talk about - Sumatra for example - we have never even used the words before never mind been here. Wild new world for boat racing.
The good news is that things are starting to at least normalise out here a bit. The bad news is it is about to get really strange once we enter the Strait of Malacca. This is the channel between Indonesia to the south and Malaysia to the north. Here the fun really begins. It is one of, if not the, most used commercial shipping lane in the world. There is an Indonesian navy who is rumoured to stop random boats and request fees to pass through. Potential outright piracy. And supposedly heaps of fishing boats, which may be lit or unlit, with lines or nets. Let the fun begin.
On board the fine yacht, we have gotten back in touch with the leaders and are now running fourth. Quite a number of changes on this leg. Just when a pattern would start to develop everything would change. We currently have Telef?nica Black just behind us and Ericsson 3 to weather- both within sight and, as usual, it is full on. Never a dull moment.
On board we are surviving the plastic fork situation barely. Thanks to all the second graders' suggestions for what to use. The problem is that not a single one of their suggestions is actually aboard the boat. Like soup can tops and aluminium foil. Great ideas if we were on a normal boat in normal conditions. One small problem that may be related to our plastic fork salutation or not is that a pretty good case of diarrhoea has overcome the boat, to the point that our toilet pump broke from overuse! Talk about a disaster. Fortunately, Dr Falcone is on the case and hopefully we can shake this before the entire team takes their turn. The stern railing is getting a lot of use these days...if you get my drift.
The questions are starting to come to the nav station a little more frequently concerning our projected ETA. We have several crewmembers flying home to be with families and several of us have families who will anxiously be in Singapore hoping to celebrate the holidays with all the sailors out here on the water. Hope the Straits are kind to us. That is all I want for a Christmas present this year.
Kenny Read - skipper
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ERICSSON 3 LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1519 GMT
It does not take much to make 11 primitive guys happy, just a little jump from 6th to 3rd in the standings. Even Gustav (Gustav Morin MCM), who has a stomach infection, has been seen smiling today!
We basically always positioned ourselves on the preferred side of the different medium sized cloud clusters, which enabled us to play some huge wind shifts through the night yesterday. When we got in touch with Green Dragon, we went just a little further than them before a tack, and slowly passed them sailing in a better shift. It actually gave us most of the distance we have on them now. It was difficult with wind shifts not forecast, but satellite pictures helped a lot in this largest thunderstorm area I have ever seen.
Now the question is: how far north is too far? We can ALMOST sail straight towards the waypoint on port tack, but in the end, it looks like we will end up in the light spot south of the scoring gate. It is very expensive to get north at this stage, but expect us to try to utilise some small shifts to get up on that layline.
There will also be plenty of boat-on-boat tactics going on. We just tacked twice to cover Puma on a small shift. Martin Krite is very angry with me now - more than normal - as tacking seems to have the same effect on him as a red cloth has on a bull! So he has hidden my iPod before he went to sleep after the stacking fest. I guess that the 'Full Stack Double Tack' within an hour on his off-watch justifies it a little bit.
Best from E3
Aksel Magdahl - navigator
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TELEF?NICA BLACK LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1335 GMT
Hi all
The last 24 hour have seen us lose a couple of positions in the fleet, which is nothing to be surprised with considering we have been sailing for more than 12 hours with the wrong headsail, because of the breakdown of the genoa halyard.
We were considering the possibility of getting up the mast to place an external lock but the call was made to wait until this morning, as conditions, mainly the waves, were a bit hazardous to get a man to the top of the mast at night. So the night passed with the J4 instead of the J2, and as dawn came, and with Puma steaming on top of us, with our longed awaited J2, we bore off and took David Vera up to fix the external lock, with complete success. And it means that we made the correct decision, you know, safety first. When we ended up, Puma was 3 miles away, but this is just a very long distance run... and we guys on board are the first to be concerned about it.
The positions are so close that it is going to be a very close approach to the scoring gate, and we to the south expect a slow and continuous shift to the gate. Wouldn't it be great?
So we keep on a nice beat to the Pulau We island scoring gate, with 340 miles to go, and then, the amusement park awaits us!
Cheers from TELEF?NICA NEGRO
Mikel Pasabant - MCM
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ERICSSON 4 LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 1050 GMT
Hi! We are now 330 miles from the scoring gate and all the boats are really close. We are trying hard to gain some miles on Telef?nica Blue and keep our distance from the others. At the moment, we have 16-20 knots of wind and we are sailing in a fast up wind mode.
Life on board has not been easy. Down below it's really warm and we are glad that we have fans in our bunks! On deck has been also very warm and if we are not wet because of the waves and the rains, once you put your gear on you start to get very sweaty... But, we all know that we are going to miss a lot this kind of weather on next leg to Qingdao!
Although this is one of the shortest legs during the race, our trip has not been not quick. We already have had a look in some of our food bags and prepared to have our Christmas dinner onboard, in case we have some delay in our previous ETA. Some of the guys are not happy, as from now we have a few less snacks and some meals have got smaller. We all hope that we get some good winds at the Malacca Strait and that we arrive in time to have a proper Christmas dinner!
Good winds
Joca Signorini
Also today saw Jules turn 40! He was his usual flamboyant and jolly self, happily sat at his nav desk in his pants (must be turning Brazilian!). Not sure what will happen with the approaching mid life crisis -I doubt the Harley Davidson and leather jacket will be enough for Jules after going round the world. I'm sure his mid-life will be more likely to involve a comfortable sofa and plenty of Coronation Street, a nice cup of tea and a fish finger sandwich.... Hold on a second - I think he is already having it.
Guy Salter - MCM
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GREEN DRAGON LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 0513 GMT
Going upwind in a Volvo 70 sucks. I am beginning to question the merits of the new route through Asia if so much of it is upwind. The first problem is that these boats don't point very high so it takes forever to get anywhere truly upwind.
The second is that the hulls have so little rocker and are so flat that they slam on every wave.
The third is, of course, that the boats are so powerful that in any wind the waves that make life so uncomfortable come thick and fast. It hasn't really been windy (an average of about 20 knots overnight) or with big seas, but still it is hard to even stay in your bunk at times, let alone sleep. The next leg to China will be a nightmare.
So what's going on out here? Well we have all made our way northwest and are set up on port tack near the layline to the scoring gate at Pulau We. It has been a real drag race for the last 24 hours - something we are not too well equipped for in these conditions and we have slipped to sixth.
Our last tack to the east was probably a mistake, but we realised this really fast and fortunately only went for an hour. There has been more wind in the north which, coupled to a left shift has made gains out here. Our plan now is to stay close to the leaders so we can capitalise on any shut downs towards the end of the leg. We are comfortably ahead of Kosatka and Delta Lloyd at this stage.
Onboard all is quiet as we are enjoying crossing off some miles finally. There is the normal battle with saltwater sores in this heat, but otherwise nothing major to report. Probably the funniest incident in the last few days was young Freddie Shanks, who went on the bow at night in the pitch black. We all heard a bit of a scuffle forwards and were rather surprised to see him coming out of the companionway hatch cursing and swearing 20 seconds later.
He forgot that we had opened the front hatch to get some air in the boat to help people sleep and had fallen straight through. A 7ft drop onto solid carbon, landing on your back is not something I would wish on anybody and in truth he was lucky to escape serious injury - a broken back or neck would not be out of the question and has been known. In typical Freddie-style, he hardly said a word, picked himself up and went straight back on the bow to do what he had meant to do! Lesson one - don't leave the front hatch open at night.
Ian Walker - skipper
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TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG THREE DAY 6 QFB: received 18.12.08 0800 GMT
Hi there!
I would seem that this has been another unbelievably busy leg. Over the course of the last 24 hours, despite the number of sail changes having somewhat reduced, there has been plenty to keep us busy.
From our position out on the right-hand side of the course, we have been steadily working our way back into contact with the fleet, trying to take advantage of every windshift possible. This has meant working hard to weave our way around the many clouds that stand in our path and attempt to force us in the wrong direction. As a result, a lack of sleep and plenty of tacking has been the order of the day up until early this morning, when we were finally able to settle down on a relatively steady course. However, this does not look like it is set to last as the radar is becoming increasingly busy with storm clouds, which will force us into action once again.
Things are going well however. We had some nervous moments yesterday morning as we watched the fleet from far away in our right hand corner. We have successfully managed to work our way back into the game and got the shift we were looking for. The shift came for us not a moment too soon. Just as we were starting to discuss the contingency plan and what we would do if the shift never came, a line appeared on the water that signalled the arrival of the new pressure and with it an expression of relief on all of our faces! Now it is a case of hanging on in there for the last few hundred miles into the entrance to the straits of Malacca in order to try to consolidate a decent position.
Currently it is a pretty bumpy ride, pounding upwind in 20 knots of wind against a sometimes very nasty seaway that is making the boat rattle and crash as we launch through the waves. This makes life downstairs pretty uncomfy and typing not that easy either! Luckily, I have managed to find a relatively flat spot in order to write these few words! Crashing upwind is something we are all going to have to get used to though as there will be many miles on the next leg just like this as we make our way to China... This leg has been described as the beat from hell but I think that perhaps we are just warming up!
Cheers, for now,
Simon Fisher - navigator
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