Friday, 21 November 2008

Just when the majority of the fleet were feeling a little punch-drunk from the past 48 hours of sparring with the Southern Ocean, Ericsson Racing Team delivered the old one-two at the second leg scoring gate this morning. Now Erricson is just ahead of its pair and other fleets. Erricson 3 is 2764 mile away from Cochin. Erricson 4 is 2796 miles away and Puma 2806 miles away when reports last came in.

Ericsson 4 were first to land a points-scoring blow, at Mauritius. Sister ship Ericsson 3 followed suit around three hours later. Green Dragon, on the ropes for the latter part of this leg after breaking their boom, clinched the final podium place at 08:40.

Team Russia (09:36) was fourth, Bouwe Bekking’s blue boat (11:40) won the battle of the Telefonica twins, while PUMA was pipped for sixth by Telefonica Black (12:25) – by just nine minutes. Delta Lloyd rounded out the order at 13:21.

While the scoring gate booty enabled Ericsson 4 to grow their overall points tally to 18, there was a fresh look to the rest of the pecking order. For the time being at least, the three points pocketed by Ian Walker’s Dragons have elevated them to second position overall alongside PUMA on 14 points – a gain of one place.

Having cleared the gate, each boat’s waypoint shifts to the finish line which impacts on their Distance to Finish and Distance To Leader (DTL).
The wind has eased into the low twenties as the bows point northwards. Next stop Cochin – a matter of just under 3,000 nautical miles away.