9:32 PM Wed 11 Mar 2009 GMT
Skipper Magnus Olsson's Ericsson 3 has led the Volvo Ocean Race for the past six days.
Sailing in strong following winds, the Nordic crew opened a lead that topped out at 280 nautical miles late last night as the fleet navigates the Southern Ocean on Leg 5, bound for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
On Day 26, Ericsson 3 is on the verge of the western end of the second ice waypoint at latitude 45 South and longitude 120 West, more than 1,800 nautical miles from the nearest point of land. The frontal system that pushed Ericsson 3 to its large lead has passed, and a high-pressure ridge is settling in.
'As it looks right now, we'll lose a bit at the ice gate. But it looks quite uncertain,' said Ericsson 3 navigator Aksel Magdahl, who plotted the course that took Ericsson 3 into the lead.
'It looks like we'll be the first boat to go into very light winds. Maybe we'll have some upwind work to get south. It'll decrease our lead, but we can only go model to model. We can only sail what we have,' Magdahl said.
The weather models show instability on the route ahead.
'In some respects, the fast pace that Ericsson 3 has set will come back to haunt them as they arrive in this area of weak high pressure, which will cause the winds to ease and veer right,' said team meteorologist Chris Bedford.
'As a result, Ericsson 3 will have to dive further south while Ericsson 4 and Puma are less likely to encounter this minor slow down and may not need to head as far south,' Bedford said. 'Ericsson 3 will lose some miles, but gain leverage with their move to the south.'
The past few days have offered the type of weather that sailors dream of. Sailing in the Roaring Forties, the crews have been surfing at speeds between 20 and 25 knots, with some planes up to 30 knots. The decks are awash and crews don helmets and survival suits on deck, but it's all acceptable with the miles to the finish clicking away.
'Had great fun today,' said Ericsson 4 media crewman Guy Salter. 'We were running with the Code 4 spinnaker on and surfing at some pretty good speeds with water pouring all over the place. The problem with these boats is that speeds in the mid-20s seem a little pedestrian.
'In my mind the sun was out but, in reality, it was grey and overcast all day,' Salter continued. 'At times up on the bow, as we surfed along, you could look down below and I think that from the deck to the water below was around 4 meters. Amazing considering that just a few meters behind you was the breaking part of the wave.'
As the fleet clears the second ice waypoint, intended to keep the yachts away from the dangers of icebergs, its likely to make a turn south to reduce the miles to Cape Horn. But the move comes with a warning label.
'The entire Volvo Ocean Race fleet is entering a more dangerous part of this leg. The weather can be brutal, temperatures are cold, swells can be huge and icebergs lurk south of their course,' Bedford said. 'The latest routing sends the boats more directly south, marking a shift to a shorter, more direct route to Cape Horn, but also bigger seas and closer to iceberg country.'
The competition is still open to see which of Ericsson 4's crewmembers correctly guessed their time of arrival at Cape Horn. A special Web site has been created and can be accessed from the home page of the team's official site, www.EricssonRacingTeam.com.
Simply pick the crewman that you think has guessed properly and you could win an official team wet-weather jacket from Helly-Hansen. The competition closes tomorrow, March 12.
ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 21 QFB: received 06.03.09 0551 GMT
Actually we have already been in a storm. Well, not storm, but at least constantly in 30 knots for hours and hours. But the wind is not the problem. It is the wave state.
We have now reached the centre of the low pressure and the wind has stopped blowing. We have tacked to get out of here and are now bumping around in a nasty sea state, waiting for the 30 knots to come back. We are pretty fed up with sailing upwind or bumpy reaching. It is a pain with the way the boat is moving and the constant spray.
'I am fed up with this fire hosing', Mange Olsson was yelling when he came down in the darkness from last watch. 'It's not fun to sail these boats any more. Why can't we have shields like on the Open 60s? How fun is it to stand in a constant fire hose for four hours three times a day? You get exhausted!'
But the bumping is worse. Things are breaking.
We have a major with our diesel tanks and for Arve Roaas and Martin Stromberg and me; the bunks are also starting to become an issue. Yesterday Arve fell down from the port one. He is staying in the one most forward and on the 'Second floor'. It's a tricky fix, so it ended up with me sleeping on my beanbag.
Tonight we had the same problem, but on the starboard side. Before I went to sleep on the 'first floor', I thought about the risks. The pipes on Arve's bunk was bending badly in the waves, but I thought that they would just keep bending and not break since it's aluminium. More worrying was the noise from the attachment in the roof. I tried to fit in under it just so the pipes were not going to hit me anywhere sensitive.
When I finally fell asleep, after getting use to jumping up and down in the bunk from the slamming, I still had a bad feeling.
A couple of hours later I woke up from a snapping noise and from being totally squeezed. The attachment in the roof snapped in a big wave. But I got away just fine, no bones broken. But now it seems like we have to do some bunk sharing. Or I sleep on my beanbag.
Gustav Morin - MCM
ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 26 QFB: received 11.03.09 0846 GMT
Had great fun today - we were running with the code 4 spinnaker on and surfing at some pretty good speeds with water pouring all over the place. The problem with these boats is that even the mid 20s seem a little pedestrian.
In my mind the sun was out, but, in reality it was grey and overcast all day - not sure when the sunnies will get used again. At times up on the bow, as we surfed along, you could look down below and I think that from the deck to the water below was around 4m. Amazing considering that just a few metres behind you was the breaking part of the wave.
It was certainly better than recently. I have been having some major league issues with my video cameras of late and at one point it was all doom and gloom with all of my three options seemingly not in operation.
It was definitely the low point for me of this leg. At the time it was hard to see why, as I had taken such care of the cameras, but in retrospect the pounding and the moisture just took its toll. Luckily, with the aid of all ashore, I have managed to bring one camera back to life and I still have hope for another.
When all were down it brought back a haunting memory which has plagued me for some time and is part of the reason I'm back here, memories from the 2001 -02 race onboard Tyco.
Back then we had days of dodging ice bergs and this made for spectacular footage. We had snow settling on the deck and on the spinnaker pole and the usual big waves were washing along the decks and I was usually body surfing within them with my camera rolling.
On one occasion I had straddled the primary winch when we went into submarine mode and the boat went under a big wave, and, as the tons of water went over the yacht, they picked me and the camera up and dumped us a few metres down the yacht at the base of the steering pedestal. The helmsman had also been washed off the wheel in the surge.
As I surfaced, the boat was full of water - which is rare for open-transomed yacht. I lifted my hand to see if the camera was still recording - it was gone! Except for the handle and my adapted wrist safety band with all the parts of the water proof housing still attached.
I shouted - 'camera's gone' to all around.
The boys who were stood by the transom looked in the knee-deep water as it flooded off the yacht for the camera. It was gone and I was absolutely gutted.
I still remember it was recording as the wave hit, the tape was at 48 mins -all of which was quality stuff - all gone.
I hope the images of the boat sailing off in the distance were recorded as we left it and that one-day the camera is washed up somewhere.
The feeling of losing so much film still hurts to this day but not as much as not getting the chance whilst down here would have done.
So thanks to all who have helped.
Cheers Livewire and Ericsson media team.
Guy Salter - MCM
VOLVO OCEAN RACE LEG 5 LEADERBOARD
(Mar. 11, 2009, 1300 GMT)
1. Ericsson 3, 4,326 nautical miles to finish
2. Ericsson 4, +259 NM
3. Puma, +287 NM
4. Green Dragon, +565 NM
5. Telef?nica Blue, +799 NM
by Ericsson Racing Team media
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