From Zero to Hero, Volvo Ocean Race 2006
Tuesday, April 04, 2006 -
The movistar crew on deck with ABN AMRO TWO just astern of her ©movistar
Bouwe Bekking lost an amazing 22 nautical miles on the fleet a day or so ago, and since then has been working away at getting back into contention.
At 1900GMT yesterday the fleet started to split and, instead of sailing in each other’s wake as they had since the start, slowly separated east to west. movistar clearly wanted the west side of the course, ABN AMRO TWO took the east.
At 0130 GMT there was 24 miles separation, the most the boats had been apart since the start. But that separation was not to last long. ABN AMRO TWO and then Pirates gybed on to port and headed north west. An hour later ABN AMRO ONE and Ericsson gybed to follow.
movistar, out to the west, didn’t seem to suffer from the wind shifts and sailed round the fleet, keeping good pressure and boat speed. Brasil 1, not so far to the west, but still in better winds, took advantage and by 0300GMT the lead two boats were movistar and Brasil 1.
The boats chasing the lead two seemed to be suffering either from the big rain clouds that affect the wind, or other localised disturbances. At 0300GMT first ABN AMRO ONE, then Ericsson, then ABN AMRO TWO and Pirates gybed back again. Half an hour later movistar made her first gybe on to port, increasing the separation and heading further west.
Pirates decided to head west to 0400GMT to join movistar, while the rest of the fleet continued in the east side of the course. By 0530 there was 15 miles across the fleet east to west.
At this point it all goes right for movistar, and all wrong for some of the others. movistar and Pirates keep moving, while the rest get stuck in a glue pot that seems also to vary in consistency. ABN AMRO TWO, according to the position plot, is sailing virtually in the same water as Ericsson, but suddenly she jumps ahead and Ericsson posts a string of positions that show her virtually at a standstill. Presumably one boat was on the right side of a cloud, one on the wrong. From that point, about 0600GMT, ABN AMRO TWO continues to sail away, while it is not until 0900GMT that Ericsson, ABN AMRO ONE and Brasil 1 manage to start sailing again.
Pirates, two hours behind movistar, but sailing on a very similar track, encounters some slow patches, while movistar keeps moving, extending her lead all the time. Movistar is narrower in waterline beam than even the other Farr boats, which must make her the narrowest boat in the fleet and particularly fast in these light and shifty conditions.
But you can’t say that ABN AMRO TWO is all that slim and she has wriggled out into a solid second place. There’s still a lot of luck involved and a lot of skill too when trying to race in these conditions.
At the 1000GMT poll, positions were: movistar leading by 13 miles from ABN AMRO TWO, Pirates another 16 miles back. Then comes ABN AMRO ONE 40 miles from the leader, followed by Ericsson four miles behind them and Brasil 1 two miles further back. The latter three are sailing at about four knots, the leaders at about ten. There is some major separation on its way if these conditions continue for any time, and there’s only 850 miles to go to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha.
Emails
The writers have been a little more prolific in time for this report despite the tense sailing conditions. We’ll start with pressed man Andy Mekeljohn who is doing the writing for Brasil 1 today, “With the absence of Knut Frostad on Brasil 1 for Leg 5, somebody has to step up and write those few words each day.
“I’m not sure if Knut had a passion for writing, suffered from chronic insomnia or had devised a clever code to communicate with the outside world so we could get feedback about the other boats. It seems like sooooo long ago that we were offshore.
“The first night consisted of “where’s my bunk”, “oh this is freeze-dried, I’d forgotten”, “did I pack my toothbrush” and “Is that ABN there, where’s Ericsson? Last! GOOD!!” So on that note we can rest easy that we won’t suffer from toxic shock with the water coming across the deck, and that in these latitudes our new Musto gear keeps the rain out and the perspiration in. Go the next 15 days!”
Next up it’s Paul Cayard who describes some of the problems that the boats face, “Basically we are dodging large clouds which dump rain and play havoc with the wind. These clouds are part of a disintegrating cold front that has been lingering in the area for a week. We will eventually have to penetrate it and get through it.
“In the past six hours, ABN AMRO ONE and ourselves got too close to a cloud and parked and that let ABN AMRO TWO and Ericsson get about five miles ahead of us. Brasil and Movistar also appeared from over the horizon as we sat there making three knots.
“About two hours later, Ericsson and ABN AMRO TWO returned the favour by getting too close to a cloud and letting us get to windward of them. Sure enough, we ate up their five mile lead and put some on them.
“It is like musical chairs out here. We are changing sails, monitoring the radar to track the speed and course of the clouds and then changing our course to try to avoid the largest potholes.
“It is hot down below. Sea temp and air temp are 28C. Luckily, there has been breeze for the most part. At some point it is going to go light and that will be painfully hot.”
For Bouwe Bekking, still suffering from a headache after being hit by the boom, getting to the front will be a welcome tonic. He describes how the process went yesterday, “We were a bit concerned the entire day, since the disastrous first night. Will the rich get richer or can we claw back?
“The latter is the case, so a big relief for everybody. We have been in sight of Brasil 1 the whole day, so at least we knew we were going all right, since we slowly gained on them. Then just after lunch, we saw the other boats on the horizon, and slowly gaining on them as well.
“I don't know how many times we have changed spinnakers today, but it must be at least once an hour, as the breeze i just changing all the time. Luckily we use one snuffer which works well. The snuffer is a sock we can pull up or down over the sail which means we don' t have to pack the complete sail, and that saves a lot of time and sweat, as the material is nearly impossible to handle.
“The two ‘new’ guys, Fernando and Big Mikey, are getting quickly in the routine.
“Especially for Fernando this is an eye opener, as this is his first long ocean race. He is a smart cookie asking lots of questions and working like madman - and a fast driver.
“We started immediately yesterday with freeze dried food, no treats this time of fresh food, as we are afraid of it going bad in the heat.
“I am still having a headache, but it is getting better, feels like only one or two nails left in my head, instead of a bunch. Bloody annoying, but I hope that it will be gone by tomorrow.”
The full text of all the emails is in the Latest Emails section and there are also the latest images and video, all available through the Images/Audio/Video button on the left side of the page.
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