Volvo Ocean race fleet make steady progress

11:09 PM Sat 13 Dec 2008 GMT

'The fleet line up at the start of leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean race, from Cochin, India to Singapore' Rick Tomlinson/Volvo Ocean Race &copy Click Here to view large photo

Six hours into the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race and there is divided opinion among the fleet as to the best choice of routing - inshore or offshore - as they make good their escape from Cochin.

By the 16:00 Position Report there was a seven-mile separation between both parties and there is less than seven miles between first and last with just over 100 miles of the 1,950-mile sprint to Singapore wiped off.

The fleet is making steady progress at around 12 knots of boatspeed. The lead bunch, positioned offshore, is headed by PUMA who have Telefonica Blue, the Ericsson twins and Delta Lloyd for company.

At the tail end of the standings was Green Dragon, who along with Team Russia are hugging the coast while Telefonica Black occupy the middle ground.

The overwhelming success of the Cochin stopover, a first Asian port of call for the Volvo Ocean Race, is borne out by the provisional figures released today by the organising authority.

In all over 800,000 people visited the Race Village during the stopover - from 30th November to 13th December with a peak of 107,287 on Sunday 7th December.

For today's leg three re-start over 60,000 lined the dockside to bid the fleet farewell. A parade of sail served as a prelude to the starting gun. 'We had a great farewell from the people of Cochin,' said Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking. 'The parade down the dock took a little longer than expected and the sun was burnng down on us. Good practice for what we expect over the next week, but the atmosphere was great.'

'We had a good start, but PUMA got their nose out just half a boat length, and that made it for us a bit difficult as were dictated by them. Just follow the leader. '

Bekking also revealed how their good start was suddenly stalled. 'The two Ericsson boats were right on our hip and we sailed for about two hours, slowly stretching on them,' he said. 'Then all of a sudden we lost speed. A quick look through the endoscope and we learned that we had weed on the keel and rudder, and both boats rolled us.

'Amazing such a bad effect some pieces of weed have on the performance. Right now the breeze has dropped to 4-5 knots and we still sail around 6 knots, hopefully the breeze will stay in. We should get more wind, coming back from the east, according to our own weather model.

'The team that sticks its nose in this first, for sure will get a jump on the rest. Right now we are spread out, some right on the beach and us about eight miles off. Time will tell who comes out best.'

Conditions on board are sedate according to Ericsson 4 Media Crew Member, Guy Salter. 'The night air is not only light but also warm and we still feel over dressed in t-shirt and shorts,' he said. 'The moon is bright - in fact yesterday the moon was the closest it had been to Earth in 50 years, its so bright that everything is casting a shadow.

'Everyone is still on deck and I guess it will take a little while to get used to the watch system and life onboard once more. Its journey into the unknown once more and I'm sure it will make everything that little more exciting again.'