Volvo Ocean Race: Green Dragon pulls back miles from Telefonica Blue

8:53 PM Sat 21 Feb 2009 GMT

'Damian Foxall on watch in rough sea, onboard Green Dragon on leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India' Guo Chuan/Green Dragon Racing/Volvo Ocean Race &copy Click Here to view large photo

The fleet have broken through one of the first milestones on the leg as they are under 10,000 miles until the finish in Rio. Conditions have dipped a little as they sail, although still reaching, in 15 knots. Ericsson 4 are holding pole position and they have made some distance from the chasing pack, Puma have lost miles in the last 24 hours and are now 39 miles behind in second.

Green Dragon's easterly position seems to be paying off and they have pulled back some miles from Telefonica Blue who are just 13 miles to their stern. The crew will be happy with this considering the night onboard in which they caught something around the keel and had an issue with the mainsail, which meant a lot of lost speed in the process.

'In the middle of the night we quickly lost speed indicating we must have something caught on the keel. Because it was over 20 knots we had to bear off, lower the jib and go head to wind and back down. When all said and done this would have cost us 3 or 4 miles. Today we spent an hour sailing with no mainsail as we had to fix the inboard end of one of our batten sockets. It appears to have just come apart under the load of all this reaching. Fortunately we carry a spare, although as is so often the case the spare wasn't identical so it needed some fine tuning!' Ian Walker.

With the fleet split from east to west, with Green Dragon still holding the most easterly position, it is clear that they are all now sailing in a variety of conditions. Which the Dragon hopes will work in their favour. 'I am happy with our Easterly position and I am sure the others will have to work this way - it seems to have stopped the loss of miles for a while,' commented Ian Walker this morning. At present the fleet are currently sailing in an area of major satellite reorganisation, which means that in some cases they are receiving no weather information! This is making the navigators job even harder as they try and make their approach to the dreaded doldrums.

For the crew onboard the Dragon they have another reason to be happy as watchleader Damian Foxall was named Irish Independent/www.afloat.ie'Sailor of the Year'.The result was announced on Seascapes, the RTE Maritime radio show by Tom McSweeney yesterday and Damian was told last night during a live call to the Allianz Dublin Boat Show. Foxall was selected by the judges for his outstanding contribution to Ireland's international maritime reputation.
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Leg Five Day 8: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 9842 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +39
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +95
Telef?nica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +260
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +273

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telef?nica Black ESP (Fernando Ech?varri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

www.greendragonracing.com