Leg 10: Live blog, day two, AM

Friday, 26 June 2009, 11:30 GMT UPDATE

Welcome to the Leg 10 Live Blog - with the fleet now in the Gulf of Finland, it's Peter Rusch here at the finish port of St. Petersburg, taking over for Cameron Kelleher. I'll be holding the fort this afternoon and working with Mark Chisnell when he arrives from Stockholm later today.  

Don't forget, you can send us your comments and queries at liveblog@volvooceanrace.org. Follow us on Twitter right here. And you can also link to it directly from your mobile via the top of the mobile channel.

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11:30 GMT UPDATE

Phew...well that was fun. Plane from Helsinki, taxi to hotel, turn around, out the door and now down in the Media Centre in St. Petersburg.

It'll take me a moment to get my bearings and check in on the emails. But let me give you a couple of quick tidbits.

First, it's beautiful here. Very warm, sunny and most importantly, WINDY. So no indication yet that the fleet will slow down.

Which dovetails nicely with tidbit number two - the Race Committee has just informed they fleet they will lengthen the race course. Under the leg sailing instructions, this was always an option, and Race Director Jack Lloyd has just made the call to run with option A, which adds about 30 nautical miles to the race track.

Stand-by and we'll have more updates shortly.

10:15 GMT UPDATE

The 10:00 GMT Position Report has landed, as has a dispatch from Mark Covell on the FleetBroadband Express. So with just under 120 miles to run, PUMA still leads the way with Telefonica Black, and that much-publicised boat speed, grappling with Ericsson 3 over second place a mile adrift of the shoe boat.

A gap had developed between the leading trio and the rest with Telefonica Blue (+5 miles Distance To Leader) and Ericsson 4 (+8) trading blows behind and now to the north of the leaders. 

Green Dragon (+14) and Delta Lloyd (+15), hugging the Estonian coast, round out the fleet. As for Team Russia, Mark reports that they have fallen way behind the racing pack.

Conditions are flat and wind speeds at 12 knots. "Good cumulus clouds are building, so we could see a battle of the breezes," says Mark. "Most teams are sleeping on the rail," he reported just before putting his head down himself.

And so that brings to an end my short stint. Peter Rusch has arrived in St Petes and will be along shortly, taxi permitting, to take you through the next few hours. It promises to be engrossing. Later.

09:45 GMT UPDATE

The Volvo Ocean Race has drawn many admirers in Estonia, according Mairold Vaik, who was among a group of local sailors who took to the water to get a close-up of the Volvo Open 70s as they passed by.

"For Estonian sailors it is a big day, some of us met yachts near Pakri and Naissaar today 0600-0700 UTC. We already have some pictures about this, some more will be during this day."

This images can be viewed on Estonia's biggest sailing forum. Regards, Mairold.

Juliet Dorer of Cape Town has been handing out Volvo Ocean Race Oscars. This is her all-star cast. 

Ericsson 4: They deserve the chequered flag. Focussed and professional, winning 5 of currently), 9 legs is pretty conclusive. Tony Mutter gets my vote for the funniest. Can't understand a word he says but that grin sliding out from under foul weather gear is a tonic.

PUMA: Definitely the most interesting boat. Different, quirky, moments of astonishing flair, and all combined with great consistency. Ken Read gets my vote for the best emails - always an unusual and different perspective.

Telefonica Blue: Great respect for Bouwe Bekking's upbeat perseverance in the face of disappointment. How come the rocks always pop up in his path? I don't believe he would have beaten PUMA into second place. Gabri O gets my vote as the best caterer for the 'parmesan cheese' effort!

Delta Lloyd: Nostalgic. It's great to see the previous winner competing so well against the newer boats knowing she's already ploughed through the epic race and won.

Telefonica Black: Great support for Tele Blue often sliding in to upset and challenge the leaders.

Team Russia: Thank you for the effort and we're all sorry you couldn't complete the race.

Congratulations to all the MCM's  -  your TV coverage was fabulous.

09:30 GMT UPDATE

An email arrives from Ericsson 3's Gustav Morin with a tribute to Telefonica Black's boatspeed - and a unsubtle message for Black's navigator Roger Nilson from Swedish compatriot and E3 skipper Magnus Olsson.

"Some of the sailors in the fleet have ommented on our boatspeed, that we are the fastest in the fleet. Well, this morning that wasn’t the case. In just a couple of hours Telefonica Black came up from the horizon and before we even got to pronounce one swear word they were beside us to leeward and kept slipping away," Morin reports.

According to Morin, Olsson added: “But don’t worry guys, sure we are slower than them but if we sail smarter we can beat them anyway. Roger Nilsson want get away that  easy. The race ain’t over yet!”.

09:20 GMT UPDATE

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, the fleet will tie up outside the grounds of the Peter and Paul Fortress on the banks of the Neva River in St Petersburg. The Nordics on Ericsson 3 might like to know that Peter the Great built the fortress in 1703 to ward off attack from the Swedish army and navy.

In 2009, it is PUMA which is under assault from Ericsson 3 as the fleet gets to within 140 miles of the finish.

09:00 GMT UPDATE

Nev and Trish Barltrop from England, like most of us, are glued to the final few miles on the 2008-09 race.

"You guys really bring this alive. The combination of the live blog, map, video clips, emails from the boats and team pages etc. paint such a vivid picture. In an age of instant media, this keeps us on the very edge of our seats, eager to devour every word." The hungry have to be fed.

Tea (English breakfast), and toast (thick white) is on the menu for me. Not sure the Volvo Open 70 crews have time for refuelling at present.

08:45 GMT UPDATE

Gabri Olivo on Telefonica Blue reports that conditions are a little shifty out there. "The wind is shifting recently to the right, giving us the advantage of being the leeward boat but if we get lifted is the opposite," he wrote.

"It's like a pendulum, sometimes you gain sometimes, you loose, depending on the wind shift. The good thing is that now it's pretty much straight line sailing and we have the chance to sleep a bit on the rail."

As for the current positions among the fleet, he adds: "Ericsson 4 if now four miles to leeward and one behind while E3 and Tele Black are having a private duel to get into second place.

"Our sistership seems to have a little edge on the Nordic crew and have now passed them. PUMA is on her own two miles to windward of us, then the duo Ericsson 3 and the Blackies then us, but east-west we are all within 500 metres to each other."

08:20 GMT UPDATE

Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe Bekking provides an explanation for the passing moves that have been pulled at the expense of both the Blue boat and Ericsson 4 in the last few hours.

"The left side of the track has been paying off hugely, more wind pressure and also the wind comong more from the left," he wrote.

"We got hung out to dry early this morning together with ERT4. We had no pressure and the three boats (PUMA, Ericsson 3 and Telefonica Black) pipped inside of us. Still close, so it will be intense.

"The Black boat has done extremely well I reckon she is he quickest in the fleet in this conditions. From day one we have been struggling to match her on beat. Anyway would be nice if they can get a podium place on a leg, they deserve it (but better behind us).

"We have been hiking (crew on the rail) since the start, to squeeze every milimetre out of the boat. Hopoefully we get some tight reaching in, as we know we are quick in that stuff.

"Saw many spectator boats from Finland this morning, and an "old" Whitbread veteran and friend, Marcus Mustelin was among them. Having done this race once, you just can't let it go."

Regarding Team Russia, we have made contact with Mark Covell and expect an update soon.

Crispin Strandell ponders what will happen at the finish line in St Petes. "You have to agree that it would be spectacular if they (Team Russia) could cross the finish zone and be first into St Petersburg."

The entire fleet has to clear customs and wait for one of the main bridges to be opened to allow them to reach their final resting place. I would put several roubles on the home town boys leading the parade to The Peter and Paul Fortress - the docking site in St Petersburg. The support for Team Russia is thick on the ground.

08:00 GMT UPDATE

Paul Andersson of Gothenburg throws plaudits in the direction of the Media Crew Members – two in particular.

”As an avid amateur photographer, to me there are two guys among the MCMs that stand out for their excellent photography; Gustav Morin of E3 and Guo Chuan of Green Dragon. Now, all of the MCMs turn out very good photography, but these two guys are really top notch. Well done!”

We second that Paul. Speaking of pictures, we have some shiny new entries in our gallery from the MCMs. View them here.

07:45 GMT UPDATE

Mats Rahm of Sweden wonders about the whereabouts of Team Russia. So do we. Hopefully we will have an update from Mark Covell on the FleetBroadband Express before too long. Bear with us Mats.

”I know that they are not in the race officially but is it possible to say something about Team Russia? How are they keeping up? With all the anxiety before the leg start it feels a bit empty now when we know that they are sailing but are nowhere in the reports.”

Meanwhile, Mats has put forward the excellent idea of a feedback forum at the end of the race. “There is so much to say about all the changes imposed in this installation of the race. As you introduce new things, that will generate new ideas and opportunities for how to improve the next race. If you know anything of such a feedback possibility, please mention it in the blog.”. There you go Mats, I have done exactly that.

He continues, “I think that there are many more like me that eagerly would like to give our two cents.” In for a penny, in for a pound I say.

Our forum makers have been alerted.

07:00 GMT UPDATE

The 07:00 GMT Position Report is in and it shows PUMA leading as the fleet negotiates the passage between Tallinn on the Estonian coast and Helsinki on the Finnish side of the gulf. The 2D Race Viewer has Ken Read's men as the northern-most boat with Telefonica Black and Ericsson 3 staring down il mostro's exhaust pipes.

In fact Telefonica Black has jumped her sistership and Ericsson 4 since the last report - on the leaderboard at least and is neck-and-neck with the Nordics for second place. "We are intensely looking for a passing lane. Time will tell," says navigator Roger Nilson.

Telefonica Blue, centrally positioned, holds fourth just ahead of Ericsson 4, which is to the south of the lead bunch. In fact Ericsson 4 conceded two miles in the last three hours and is now three miles off the lead.

Meanwhile, Green Dragon and Delta Lloyd are waging their own private battle at the back - some 13 miles off the front-runners. The pair have been trading places over the past few miles with the Dragon holding the edge at present, a mile to the good of Chuny Bermudez and his men.

The emails from the Volvo Open 70s has dried up. I suspect they have a 'bit on' as the sailing lexicon goes.

Anyone who thought that this final 150 miles to St Petersburg might be a valedictory cruise after the previous 36,850 miles, ignores the fiercely competitive nature of the men out there on the front line. It's a fight to the finish.

"I have to admit that this leg was a tough one to really get fired up about. That is until the starting gun went off of course," wrote PUMA's Ken Read. "Then it is full on, no matter what is at stake."

06:15 GMT UPDATE

So PUMA's profits from the northerly routing option are evident on the leaderboard as Ken Read's men lead the charge to St Petersburg. There's barely a sigareta paper between the top five - PUMA, Ericsson 3, Tele Blue, Ericsson 4 and Tele Black so still all to play for with 150 miles remaining.

"We know for sure that il mostro has poked her nose back out in front of the lead group because we can see them all, E3 is the closest, about a half mile to leeward," notes PUMA's Rick Deppe.

“So there's not much in it and with about 150 miles to go we have our fingers crossed that the wind doesn't die and turn the race into a lottery.

"Bob Greenhalgh just commented that the boat feels a bit like a pin ball as we bounce off either the northern and southern sides of the Gulf of Finland, it gets narrower and narrower as we get further in and the tacks become more and more frequent... ding, ding, ding.”

Ericsson 3’s Gustav Morin sums up conditions out there. “It has been a pretty calm night. A couple of tacks and some stacking but the calm sea and the relatively light winds, 10 to 15 knots, has made the journey pretty pleasant,” he wrote.

"It’s already obvious that some of the guys are tired. But the nice weather and the midnight sun makes it easier to stay awake and concentrate.

"We are now in the Gulf of Finland and we are trying to tack on every shift, making good way upwind towards St Petersburg. Racing is still close even though the fleet has split a bit. PUMA is up to windward and Telefonica Black has made huge gains and is now right on our tail. Ericsson 4 and Telefonica Blue are a few miles down to leeward."

Meanwhile, it’s hard to tell night from day according to Telefonica Blue’s Gabri Olivo. “We're back on starboard again, we've been tacking quite few times since this Morning... well since last night... well, wasn't a proper night, it wasn't dark at all, and it was too early to be a morning.

"It's a bit confusing, you feel like 7am and it's 4am instead. It's very nice in one side, you're always full of energy but on the other side the day it's endless.”

04:20 GMT UPDATE

Wow, What a difference a couple of hours makes. The north has come good for PUMA and Ericsson 3 who lead the fleet on the 04:00 GMT position report.

Gabri Olivo keeps us up to date from Telefonica Blue: "We just tacked on port again, few minutes before Erisson 4. We did quite nicely against them, but not so good against Ericsson 3 and PUMA. They gained quite a lot by going close to the archipelago, it seems that they had quite a better pressure to slip away. Now they have something like five or six miles of separation, and only few degrees behind us. The game is fully open."

Boat speeds are still up in the 11-12 knots range and the distance to finish stands at 210 miles, so they're half way through the leg in a little more than 12 hours - not a bad start at all.

PUMA's skipper Ken Read has written in to say the finish can't come soon enough: "A long beat to Russia. This race wouldn't be complete without one more long beat.  Nice flat water though.  Very civilized sailing with no water on deck at all.  The finish line can't come soon enough.  There is some serious celebrating that needs to take place."

01:20 GMT UPDATE

Well we're back... at least for a few minutes, to check on the how the guys are doing out there.

A new day means a new page, but you can always check out yesterday's blog here.

First, to the business of Leg 10. The 01:00 GMT position report is in, and this is what it looks like.

Telefonica Blue remains furthest to the east, with Ericsson 4 very, very close behind. Both are well south of PUMA and Ericsson 3 who are leading the charge north.

There's plenty of separation in the fleet now, it will be interesting to see how the PUMA/E3 charge north turns out against Blue and E4 further south when they all converge again.

We've also had a few missives from the race course.

Guy Salter checked in from Ericsson 4 about an hour ago, just as the sun was starting to rise again:

"We have a lightening wind and very flat water as we head on starboard tack towards the Finnish Coastline which is a mere 25 miles away and littered with hundreds of rocks and small islands

"We also have Tele Blue just 10 boat lengths a beam and we can see that they have almost their entire crew on deck - hiking hard - it's probably what we should be doing but the bunks are at capacity as we run our normal shifts.

"It's extremely pleasant at the moment - it's cold on deck but not bitterly cold and there is not a cloud in the sky

And then from his counterpart on Telefonica Blue, Gabri Olivo:

"After a couple of tacks, we're now on stb with E4 just on leeward of us and slightly behind. Earlier on we crossed ahead of Puma and E3, so we're now leading. The wind shifted further right to 80TWD and we're inside the shift. So far so good.

"Nobody had any sleep at all, just Daryl and Pepe are having at the moment a little "siesta" on the rail. The sun is just about to come up after few hours of little light. White nights here we comes.

So that's what's happening on the race course.

On the blog, Andrew has checked in to give a vote for a stop in Victoria, British Columbia, which, having spent a lot of time sailing among the Gulf Islands of the west coast of Canada, I can heartily endorse.

Natasha has asked about live video streaming from the boats, but countered herself with the reason why it doesn't happen yet... it's simply too expensive in terms of that satellite connection to get the video back. We have a great partnership with Inmarsat which allows to do what we do in this race, but an 'always on' feature is a little out of reach still.

Stephen has brought up the concern about how we can separate the position information from the public (he suggests hourly reports with more StealthPlays) and the boats, who wouldn't get as much information. And he's right, we can screen emails and even find out what calls they're getting, but we can't control the content of the calls. Currently, there is usually a good amount of dialogue with the media, for example. All it takes is one journalist to say, 'How are you going to counter their gybe to the South?' for the cat to be out of the bag.

Christer, I think you can rest assured that Knut and the rest of the race organisation team will be keeping the media crew members. There might be a change in the rule regarding what they are allowed to do on board the boats, but there will be some form of dedicated MCM in the next race. Knut is a big fan of it too.

Menesi Gaspar has shared answers to the five questions posed by Mark. I agree with regards to best moment - seeing the expressions on the face of the Ericsson 3 crew when they won the leg into Rio after starting late in China. The entire team has taken on the character of skipper Magnus Olsson and it's a joy to see a team having so much fun.

Mats was asking about live coverage of the finishes, and maybe that's something we'll look at for the next race. In the meantime, the blog will have to suffice.

And with that, I'm going to doze off again for another little while. Keep the emails coming!

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