Boat Blogs from Day 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race
'Photo credit: Mikel Pasabant/Telefonica Black/Volvo Ocean Race. Some of the crew onboard Telefonica Black take a rest on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race'
Volvo Ocean Race ©
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Boat Blogs from Day 8, Leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
TELEF?NICA BLACK LEG ONE DAY 8: received 18.10.08 1147 GMT
Hi everyone
As you remember, we had a slight problem the other day with our chute... We thought we had more than a problem: that of the sail itself and the loss of miles if we couldn't get it repaired. Good.
Thanks to the legends sailing this boat we had it up again and the result is as it is now: getting closer and closer to the rest of the fleet. Just 14 miles behind TELEF?NICA AZUL! Sailing as demons sail!!
Another problem we face is the Attack of the Flying Fish! Those sardines with wings get so surprised when they see us surfing down a wave at 20+ knots that they jump in every other direction and of course all the way through the boat! Imagine us ducking as in a shoot- out! $%**^!*!! Sardines! Ha ha!
Life on board goes in a smooth way, routine and shifts, perhaps only missing a couple more cookies and chocolate, but we must pay attention to our doctor's and trainers committee who are the ones who know how things go well, and the good thing is that we are eating and drinking very well, so that's good. Some say they are even getting fatter and fatter! Good!
Hugs from TELEF?NICA NEGRO
Mikel Pasabant - MCM
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GREEN DRAGON LEG ONE DAY 8: received 18.10.08 1035 GMT
Greetings all from the Green Dragon
After week 1, the racing is still as close and as interesting as it was on day 1, which intense but the sailing has been great.
I should start at the beginning, thank you so much everyone involved the start. It was a great event and a real privilege to be a part of.
I emailed my fianc?e Charlotte a few days ago, saying that it didn't feel like the start of the Volvo Ocean Race until about 1 hour before we left, when this amazing feeling came over the village and we all started saying our goodbyes. It's hard enough saying goodbye to Charlotte and her family; I can't begin to imagine how it feels for our guys with young kids.....
The start was full of drama for us with gear failure, something that has never happened to us before. We just got another position report and we are slowly getting a bit back on the leaders which is nice to hear after a few days of not really knowing how we are positioned....
As for life onboard, the days are really flying by, which is good and the sailing really is magic. Everyone onboard is in really good spirits and gets on very well; I think it shows the quality of the crew as a group. Our only real worry has to be Neal MacDonald. He hurt his knee a few days ago which has been a concern, but he is being treated by medic Tom (Braidwood), following some great advice by doctor Tommo (Mark Thompson). It's really great to have people like that literally at our finger tips. Neal also had a shocker the other day, wearing his wedding ring. It got stuck and cut his finger, not very badly, but enough to look slightly infected, swell up and force us to cut his ring off (sorry Lisa if you are reading this before he writes to you....) Apart from that, we have had the occasional attack from flying fish, hitting me a few times and whoever dares to stick their head above the stack!! The water is warmer and the temperature is getting hotter every day. Downstairs is a bit of a sweat box, which is good for the few of us athletically overweight!!!
Well guys, not much more to report, might go and have another one of our beautifully prepared meals and fill it full of flavour with everybody's favourite, TABASCO!!!
Hope this finds you all well, and I'll write to you again from the southern hemisphere!
Cheers
Phil Harmer - helmsman/trimmer 
The Green Dragon crew hit rough weather on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race - Volvo Ocean Race © Click Here to view large photo
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DELTA LLOYD LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: received 18.10.08 1702 GMT
Day 7 Sat 18.10.08 1540hrs, 180nm South of Verdes, 5 knots boat speed, 13.7Knots wind speed, Sail Plan A3 spinnaker, Stay sail and Main.
Fleet is grouped between Dragon right of course and Delta Lloyd left of course with only 140nm between us and approx 16 miles in difference with last position report showing Dragon ahead, with the rest of the lead fleet bunched in the middle separated by only a few miles. Both the Dragon and Delta Lloyd are positioned to make a gain. Let's wait and see.
Delta Lloyd 5th.position just made up +19 miles on leader and lost -9nm to Dragon, +19 on Russians, in last 3 hours.
Puma leading us by 70nm, E3 by 63nm, E4 by 36nm, Dragon by 16, Russians behind us by 21nm, Tela behind us by 48nm, Teln behind us by 54nm.
We await the next weather data, as we study a tropical storm approaching in the next 12hrs from the east. It's 75 miles wide and heading straight for the fleet's path. We await further data due at 1800hrs, but feel its too big to sail around. We are preparing for a busy night of sail changes, water, provisions food, likely sail positioning preparation for easy access, get crew fed and rested to have max energy for next 24 hrs. There could be big wins and losses in how the fleet manage this obstacle. We will have to wait and see. These storms suck up and disturb the direction of the wind. Let's hope we get our timing right.
Crew all well with Husty (Ryan Houston). Cold has cleared up, Edwin's (Edwin O'Connor) leg looks ok but we will monitor. Mat's birthday (Matthew Gregory) with crew singing happy b.day was a good start to the day. Sander (Pluijm) the media crew caught all on camera. We ordered 9 different flavours of freeze dried food but due to our late entry, Deirdre (logistics manager) only received 4 flavours (3 chicken and1 beef) and we are having to be very imaginative while eating.
The has a soul of her own, she seems to know what she wants with even one extra knot of pressure and she off.
Good Day From Delta Lloyd
Ger O'Rourke - skipper 
The crew of Team Delta Lloyd on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race - Volvo Ocean Race © Click Here to view large photo
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ERICSSON 4 LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: Received 18.10.08 1447 GMT
We're a man down today after having to evacuate Tony Mutter off the yacht yesterday. His condition wasn't improving and after seeking medical advice from onshore, the decision was made to get him off.
As we were already reasonably close to the Cape Verde islands, it made for a convenient drop-off point. We organised to meet a fishing boat just off one of the islands. The wind didn't play ball very well though and we ended up fully drifting in 1 knot of wind. When we finally found the boat, Tony got in his survival suit and basically jumped overboard. Very sad for him but better than a full emergency in the middle of the Atlantic later on.
It is hard enough to sail these boats with 10 people and as we were preparing to get racing again, it became obvious that the next 2 weeks is going to be bloody tough without Tony.
It has been a great sail down for the last 4 days. Very funny to go so close to Lanzarote the other night. A few of us talked about popping into our old local pub 'McSorley's', and downing a 'quick six', but it was decided that it would be better if we continued racing.
A couple of us have developed a bad case of 'gunwhale bum' from the salt on the skin. Not a very good look at all and extremely uncomfortable. The need to wash with fresh water after a watch is critical otherwise it could get a bit out of hand.
We figured that we lost about 50 miles during our detour, so we are fighting on as best we can. As we have all seen, anything can happen in sailing so we are just trying to stay in touch with the pack and see how it all pans out.
It's fantastic to see Ericsson 3 battling it out with Team Puma at the front of the pack. Keep the heat on them boys!!
All good otherwise.
Phil Jameson
Ericsson 4
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TEAM RUSSIA LEG ONE DAY 8 QFB: received 18.10.08 1820 GMT
Lighter winds give Mark Covell ( MCM) time to ruminate.
Spoons at Dawn
The winds are getting lighter, the man smells are getting stronger and the will to eat up the sea miles is certainly not fading away. In my blogs I have tried to bring you the feelings from onboard not just the A,B & Cs of daily life on this V70. Here are some ongoing themes from life above and below deck.
Food is obviously an ongoing topic. The preparation is simple, boil water, tip freeze-dry food into eski, add water, re-hydrate. Then serve up with a large ladle, doing your best impression of every prison film you have ever seen.
I like to get a good splat in the food bowl before I lean over to the bemused crewman and say in hushed voice 'It's tonight, we're breaking out, we're getting out.. You coming?' It gets the same strange look every time.
The flavours range from bland to blander. The all time favourite is the eagerly anticipated Chicken and Mushroom Thai Curry. The big benefit of this dish is for once the mushrooms actually look like mushrooms. The food itself can't bring everything that a growing Volvo Ocean sailor needs to keep fit and healthy, so let me introduce the second biggest topic outside the subject of winning a yacht race: supplements. They come in all shapes and disguises. The fish oil tablet repeats on you all day until it's time to take another one. The rest of the pills and powered drinks just give you wind. The sound of creaking sheets, easing on the winches above deck can often be drowned out by fluctuant flatulence emitting from the sleeping bears bellow. If only we could harness the power to ease us through the Doldrums.
Needing a breath of fresh air myself from my own cramped space I just put my head up out of the hatch and ask for inspiration about the next biggest topic discussed. Stig (Westergaard) impressively suggested that politics and philosophy got the biggest airtime on his watch.. Deep. But without doubt it's the constant question of 'Who has nicked my spoon' that got the vote.
In the effort to keep the weight down someone thought we only needed one spoon per person and three spare spoons to get us to Cape Town in good shape. After only three days at sea we were four spoons down. Now if you think this is pretty unimportant thing to worry about on the VOLVO OCEAN RACE - LIFE AT THE EXTREME, you must remember that we only have one bowl and one spoon each. Loose your spoon and life can get pretty extreme.
Tack Back and Stack
Last night was hot and humid. My choice to sleep under my media desk straddling the two small beams that run down the floor was justified. We were approaching the Cape Verdi Islands in light winds and I knew we were going to be gybing all night. That would mean being woken and moved from side to side like a sack of potatoes about once every hour. Please don't feel too sorry for me, as the lads sailing the boat would get a lot less sleep than I would. The real reason I needed to keep a low profile was because I wanted to keep out of the military manoeuvres involved in stacking. Let me introduce you to the art, and it is an art of STACKING
stack |stak|
noun
1) a pile of objects, typically one that is neatly arranged : a stack of boxes.
. ( a stack of/stacks of) informal a large quantity of something : there's stacks of work for me now!
2) arrange (a number of things) in a pile, typically a neat one DERIVATIVES
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old Norse stakkr 'haystack,' of Germanic origin.
In modern nautical terms and in the case of the VO70 rule it is the act of moving everything that isn't bolted down to the preferred side of the boat. That can mean forward in light airs or as far aft and to windward in heavy airs. The bottom line is, whenever the boat tacks or gybes, the stacking team gets busy. They split into two groups, one stacks the sails on deck and the other moves all the kit and equipment below. I half expect them to break into a sombre rhythmical song like a prison chain gang.
The call goes out 'let's gybe' and like a pack of silent ants shifting a twig ten times their size, the crew descends to commence the stack. The whole show lasts about 10 minutes and depending on how wet the sails are the team can move up to 2.5 tones each time, 300kg of that is food bags. Each food day-bag we eat is one less they have to stack. I of course due to the rule am not allowed to help in the fun and as I have already made myself reasonably unpopular in closely filming this chore, prancing about, getting in the way, carrying no more than a small Sony video camera, I now try to keep low profile.
Now you understand my decision to hide in my hole in the back last night. So when you hear in a race report that a boat put 20 short tacks up the coast for example. It wasn't just the case of turning the wheel, swinging the keel and sheeting on. It involves a lot more huffing and puffing, panting and persuading than you ever thought before. So you now know why Volvo navigators and tacticians, think twice before they call for a full 'tack back, and stack!'
Mark Covell - MCM
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by Various Volvo Ocean Race Competitors 
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