8:12 PM Sat 21 Feb 2009 GMT
Since starting leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race in Qingdao last Saturday, the leaders of the pack, Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) and Puma (Ken Read/USA) have covered over 2,000 nautical miles and last night the pair reached the 10,000 nm distance to finish marker.
The two front-markers are leading the fleet midway between the Islands of Micronesia and the Marshall Islands situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, just west of the International dateline and still north of the equator.
Navigator of Ericsson 4, Jules Salter/GBR reckons his team are about 100 nm north of the first light and fickle Doldrum belt on this leg. Jules says, 'As much information as possible is always good to base your decisions on, but so often, with these bubbling, light wind, cloudy weather situations, a large amount is good luck.'
Due to a major satellite reorganisation and upgrade, weather and other information is limited for a short period on this leg. Ever resourceful and, much to the amusement of the crew onboard Ericsson 4, Salter is using an old school weather fax.
'With our T&T radio set up, we can get weather maps from the sky,' he says. 'Reception is not digital, but there is a pleasure in receiving a slightly blurred weather map from the airwaves as you hear the tone come in over the SSB radio. Whether it will help us to maintain our slender lead through the first Doldum area is a moot point,' he says, adding that it is good to revisit old technology for a while. 'We become too complacent on so much new technology which we, especially me, do not understand.'
But the 'fun' will be short lived as the weather fax will be put away in a few hours as Inmarsat's Fleet 33, the backup system to Inmarsat Fleet Broadband, becomes operational again. Although considerably slower than Fleet Broadband - dial up speed compared with Fleet Broadband, which debuts on this event and offers HD TV to the race - the system is able to provide most of what the navigators need to pick their way through the doldrums. The full system will be back in operation in three days from now.
Bouwe Bekking/NED, skipper of 'come back' boat Telef?nica Blue, is pragmatic about the situation, although his navigator Tom Addis is 'agitated' as Bekking puts it. 'It's one of these things that you learn over the years. Do not get too upset about things you do not have control over, especially if it is the same for all the other boats,' Bekking said.
With 9,842 nm to go to the finish, Ericsson 4 leads PUMA by 39 nm, a loss for PUMA of over 37 nm in the last 24 hours. Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) has also slipped back another 35 nm and now has a deficit of 95 miles. Telef?nica Blue slipped past Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) yesterday, and leads her by 13nm, although the Dragons have chosen a more easterly route.
Both boats sailed without mainsails for a short period overnight; Telef?nica Blue slowed the to make good a problem with the propeller box, while Green Dragon also spent an hour with no mainsail while the crew repaired the end of one of the batten sockets. With a big split across the fleet, the danger now for the teams will come when the boats ahead reach new weather systems.
Ian Walker, however, is still happy with his easterly position. 'I am sure the others will have to work this way - it seems to have stopped the loss of miles for a while,' he said.
ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 7 QFB: received 20.02.09 0846 GMT
It has become very warm the last couple of days and today the sea is an incredible 28 degrees. The air is a lot cooler, but since we are still reaching around 20 knots, it's still a lot of spray on deck and we still need to wear full foul weather gear.
Under deck it's another story.
It feels like the hull is absorbing the heat from the ocean and it gets a couple of extra degrees heat from the sunny sky. Aksel Magdahl (navigator) and l, who spend a lot of time down below, are running the swimming-trunk-clothing programme. Even so, a layer of sweat is constantly running down our backs.
It is always impossible to stay dry on these boats. Either it's windy and it's water everywhere or you sweat from the effort of just being on the boat. In lighter wind, you are usually close to the equator, where the sun is shining from straight overhead and it's dripping warm.
But all of this is a part of the game and the crew who acclimatises the best has is an advantage. The next coming days it will get even warmer and then it will stay like that for at least a week.
We better get used to this quick.
I can understand that the guys were complaining about the cold conditions in China. But for me who doesn't have to stay on deck more than a few hours now and then, the cold was nice. At least when we were two days away from China. The air was fresh and cool, even down below, and you could sleep well at night in our nice warm sleeping bags. I have never slept that well on the boat.
But there is always good and bad. I guess it's just human nature to complain a bit.
We are still sailing well, the boat feels good and there haven't been any big incidents. We are fighting in the backwater of Ericsson 4 and Puma, still within striking distance. Telef?nica Blue is pretty much in the same track as us but around 150 miles behind. Green Dragon seems to have made a bold decision to sail more to the east. If you look at the route historically the probability for it to pay off is pretty good. It's good for the racing; it makes it just a bit more exciting.
Gustav Morin - MCM
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TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 7 QFB: received 20.07.09 0303 GMT
Hi There,
Not much has changed here on Telef?nica Blue in the last 24 hours, apart from at some stage last night someone turned the wetness up to 11 on the dial! Throw in a couple of hours of driving rain that we got this morning and you wouldn't look too out of place in a snorkel and flippers! I've just come off deck and my hands look like I fell asleep in the bath for 10 hours and my lips feel like I have just eaten and entire bucket of salty popcorn...
We are still making good speed though and have reason to celebrate a little today as we have gone ahead of Green Dragon in the rankings. Although it does not mean too much at this stage with so far to go it is a nice moral booster and just reward for all the fast scheds we had through the night.
Below deck is a little bumpy right now, making moving around and going about your daily business an interesting challenge. Next up is the attempt to eat a bowl of Mexican chicken without throwing it all down my front! After that I will continue to experiment on the best way to dry out my socks. Every time I hang them out they seem to end up wetter than when I took them off!! Finally it is going to be a little bit of iPod in my bunk and then a nice siesta... all in all a nice afternoon in the Pacific Ocean.
Until tomorrow,
Simon Fisher - strategist/helmsman
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Leg Five Day 8: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 9,842 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +39
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +95
Telef?nica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +260
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +273
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telef?nica Black ESP (Fernando Ech?varri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
www.volvooceanrace.org
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