6:11 AM Wed 25 Feb 2009 GMT
Latest news from the Volvo fleet, on Day 11 of their marathon leg 5 to Rio.
TELEF?NICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 11: received 24.02.09 1421 GMT
Back in the real world of technology, Gabry (Gabriele Olivo MCM) has fixed his electrical issues, so he can work again on all his clippings and shots. The Fleet 33 is providing data again and it looks like in any minute the broadband connection will become operational again. There will become a bit pressure onto Gabry to send of as much as possible footage, as the weekly TV programme has to be put together at the other end. He is keen as mustard to get more and better footage of than all the other teams. One thing is he likes us to win on the water, but on top on that he wants to be the best media person.
The last 24 hours have been very comfortable, no water over the decks and reaching with our big code zero up. Again the boats ahead of us had a better (wider) wind angle than us, but amazingly, we have still been able to close in on them, which can mean only one thing: we are fast.
All the improvements we have made are paying off. All the good work from the sail designers and our shore team sail makers, who have squeezed the extra horse power we were looking for out of our sails, the 'engine' of our boat. Not too forget all the jobs the boat builders have done for us, which are maybe not always directly visible from the outside, but which definitely help us to go faster. I don't want to cut any of our other shore departments short, they all fantastic in their jobs and contribute what we are: A GREAT TEAM!!!
Cheers,
Bouwe Bekking - skipper
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ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 11 QFB: Received 24.02.09 1156 GMT
Ten days at sea and the clock keeps ticking, as do the miles - (touch wood).
First we got rid of the cold then we lost a digit (9.999 instead of 10 thousand something) and then the southern hemisphere. Now we are looking forward to cross the date line and jump into the western hemisphere. Some have got it even better but Doldrums went ok for us, at least I have no complaints. Jules (Jules Salter - navigator) wasn't so happy with the lack of meteo information, but did a great job using the good old weather fax with the SSB.
Although our sailing conditions have been rather steady, things further south seem quite volatile and so does our routing through there. There is a big variety of routes going all over the place. Things have settled a little with the fleet appearing to be unanimous on the decision to go to the east of Fiji, but there are still big uncertainties further from there.
The crew seems quite focused and into their routine. The exception is the other two Brazilians which are a little preoccupied by this special date - its carnival in Brazil now. It's not the first time that we are at sea in this regatta on this date.
The big difference to last time is obviously the amount of talk and laughter onboard especially on occasions like this.
The fact that we still have to eat freeze dried food for another 30 days is a worry, but it should probably help the diet I will have to do, to fit in a Star together with Marcelo again. We must be almost 20 kilos over right now...
It has been nice to virtually visit all this islands we are going through. It would be fantastic to visit at least some of them in the future. It is amazing how people live in so many little tiny ones in the middle of nowhere. Just need a more suitable boat with heaps more time.
Fair winds.
Torben Grael - skipper
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PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 11 QFB: Received 24.02.09 1332 GMT
For the last 24 hours it feels as though Ericsson 3 has been stalking us! They are right there about three miles behind us and a mile to weather. Of course I say this in the full realisation that they aren't stalking us, but actually trying to overtake us, laughing as they sail away over the horizon before their ultimate arrival in Rio days before us. How do I know this? Because of course we're trying to do exactly the same to them! And their team mates on Ericsson 4, in fact every other boat out here.
In my opinion, Ericsson 3 seems to be the one boat that we have seen the most over the course of the race. They always seem to be lurking around somewhere and often show great bursts of speed which gives them the ability to stay in the fight and also get them out of trouble when they need to.
Yesterday was a great case in point, as they had somehow overnight managed to make up a 50 mile deficit to put themselves right alongside us as we approached the Equator after 3000 miles of sailing. Of course, they also seem to be having a ton of fun on their boat and I like that. The Ericsson 3 crew is quite a bit younger (except Magnus Olsson, who would fit right in over here) than all of us here on Il Mostro, therefore we don't know them individually so well. One exception would be Magnus Wox?n 'Baggy'', who joined Ericsson 3 for this leg. He's done a bunch of sailing with many of us on the PUMA team and is a well known face around the race...
Talking of fun, yesterday we had a brilliant combined Equator crossing and cigar smoking party for Michi to celebrate the birth of his daughter -Mia Colata. We are all Shellbacks on the boat so there was need to worry about any initiation ceremonies; this gave us the chance to just enjoy the moment. Jerry (Jerry Kirby) brought along some Cuban cigars (the good ones) for Michi, but he wouldn't even touch them - the rest of us were happy to help out. Justin sneaked a small bottle of rum aboard disguised as sewing machine oil and we all managed a nip of that as well.
It was good to have everyone up on deck for 15 minutes. Fortunately, the 'Scandihooligans' on Ericsson 3 must have been having an even bigger time because while the party rocked, Il Mostro sailed right away and took about 1/2 mile out of them. Sidney Gavignet, representing the Northern Hemisphere, drove the boat to the Equator before handing over to Rob Salthouse, representing The Southern Hemisphere; a nice moment.
Rick Deppe - MCM
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