Tue, 16 May 2006 10:47:25 UTC
All the boats have now broken through into the stronger free breezes and, as you might expect, ABN AMRO ONE is off like a robber’s dog.
Overnight the wind slowly backed from east of north to west and increased slightly, releasing the fleet from their hell of windward work – which, in terms of sailing days, has really stayed with them since they left the Chesapeake halfway through the last leg.
Courses show a gentle curve to the north with the leading bunch now sailing north-north east at speeds between 14 and 19 knots. No prizes for guessing who is sailing the fastest.
Up north and now some way behind, movistar didn’t have long enough in the new winds to make any impression on the leading bunch, but they are still in a good position to make some gains when stronger winds hit the fleet in the next few days. Their trouble is that, by then, the rest of the fleet will be up on their latitude and any advantage they might have had will have evaporated. For movistar the wind is almost dead astern, causing them to gybe a couple of times during the night, at 2255GMT and 0140GMT.
Among the pack, Brasil 1 went in for a couple gybes during the night, while everyone else, further south, has had the wind more on the beam and hasn’t had to gybe. ABN AMRO ONE, out in front, had the best of both worlds with stronger winds from a better angle. There’s an old cliché about people with money making more and it applies today to the leader.
For the moment there are few tactical options available to the chasers. They will all ease north towards the stronger winds and then follow the wind as it curves south below the low pressure system which sits right in their path. Drag racing comes to mind and we all know what happens in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet when it’s all about speed don’t we?
Positions
At the 100GMT position poll, ABN AMRO ONE was leading by 48 miles from Ericsson, an increase of 23 miles in 12 hours. Ericsson has been flying, taking 24 miles out of Brasil 1 who is now 88 miles astern of the leader. Then comes Pirates of the Caribbean who has taken a massive hit over the 12 hours and is now 121 miles behind the leader and 33 miles behind Brasil 1, a loss of five miles on the flying blue and yellow boat and a loss of 52 on the leader. ABN AMRO TWO has lost 48 miles on the leader, but has gained eight on Pirates and pulled out seven miles on the sixth boat, Brunel, who is trucking along just 162 miles behind the leader. This is a heartening position for the Australian boat to be in, by no means off the pace.
movistar shows a distance of 222 miles to the leader, an increase of 76 miles since 2200GMT yesterday, but her east-west displacement on the leader is over 300 miles. As for all the boats, the fact that she is not on the theoretical great circle course skews the figures.
Emails
Bouwe Bekking sent in a report this morning, confirming that they seem to have missed the boat in terms of weather, “movistar has got breeze again, but the outlook is not too flash.
“We will be running dead downwind for the next two days, meaning a bad angle, while the others have a reach and are sailing more or less on course towards the Lizard. Worse of all there is another ridge building up on our route, which we only will encounter and the others not.
“Spending heaps of time with Capey in the nav station and looking at all options, but we missed the train and need the Concorde back on duty (with us onboard) if we want to catch up. The good thing is that guys are not dark with us, at least they don't show it, they keep on trimming, driving and working like if we were in the lead, a good bunch.
“Had Mikey up in the rig today, doing some air-aerobics fixing the bungee cord on the runners, who had snapped during the upwind sailing. He was bouncing and bungling like a monkey, but had a big smile on his face; you have to be a special breed to be a bowman it looks to me, the more crazy things they can do the more they enjoy it.
“When he was in the rig he spotted some whales about half a mile away, who all of a sudden started making big jumps lifting their massive bodies out of the water, too far away to get it on film, but anyway impressive to see. For the rest zip sea life to report.
“One thing that makes us realize that the US is still closer by than Europe, was that we saw a Starbucks coffee cup floating by. . .”
ABN AMRO ONE
Mike Sanderson has been spending time at the keyboard too, and looks ahead to what could be a grandstand finish in the Solent on Saturday, “Our race lately has not only been against the competition behind, but it has also been against the lighter winds that are coming up from behind and that are the reason we have been making some nice gains on the guys a little further back.
"Ericsson has managed to stay in front of it as well so there will be a few more smiles onboard that boat at the moment which is great. Points wise now overall they can't beat us, so it is great to see them having a good leg to date, and even better to see them in-between us and the Pirates, however it is still way to early to mean anything with just a bit under 2,000 miles still to go.
“It does look like however that we are in for some fast sailing for a good chunk of the rest of the trip, and as I said it is still too far away to mean much, but right now it looks like the fleet will be flying down the Solent in 25 plus knots of breeze on Saturday, so I am sure that would be great for the spectators. It would be so cool to have a fast finish, so far we have finished in very light airs on every leg, how cool would it be to come smoking down the Solent with gennakers up?
“But really I am getting ahead of myself, we haven't made it to half way yet miles-wise.
“The wildlife has been picking up which has been fun, we are still a bit shaken up over having hit the poor whale, it has actually been amazing how few whales we have see this time, so really unbelievable that we hit one. We have been seeing dolphins again though which is cool, they are always exciting to watch no matter how many times you have seen them.
“So for now we are working hard to try and build up a lead so that we don't have to push as hard in the hard running conditions to come, I need to keep reminding myself that we don't have to win, just a good solid finish will do, but that won't make it any easier to see them come past if some guys do go ballistic in the big breeze. But we have to keep the ultimate goal in mind and that is to win the Volvo Ocean Race.”