A North South Devide

The navigators are locked in a battle of tactical chess, the crews are settling back into their watch systems. The decision-makers are contemplating whether to go further south and into the stronger breeze for maximum scoring gate points, or stay north, in lighter conditions but closer to the finish line booty.

With the fleet strung out across a north/south divide of about 40 nautical miles, the leaderboard is distorted as it is based on Distance To Finish (DTF), which favours boats further to the north, although tactically, the position in the south, with its stronger winds will compensate for the extra distance to be sailed.

When reports last came in Telefonica Blue and Erricson 3 are marching ahead. After 48 hours of the leg 2 Green dragon is in the 3rd place and Erricson 4 in  the 4th position. Puma, Telefonica Blue,Delta Lloyd and Team Russia are racing from behind.

Erricson 3 and Puma met with mishaps on the opening days of the leg two. Ericsson 3 have just rebounded from Sundays. Their jib came off second best in a tangle with the radar dome. The sail was ripped and the dome parted company with the mast. The sail has been repaired but the crew is still pondering a fix for the dome.

E3’s Media Crew Member, Gustav Morin, takes up the story. “Our jib got caught on the radar in one of the first tacks and got a small rip. The sail was not the most irritating part, but the fact that the radar was hanging on a thread. It was about to get even worse.

Telefonica Black also issued a damage report. “We hit something and we slowed from 11 knots to 6 and then the boat suddenly stopped. The first thing we did was to check the rudders and they were OK. We think it was a huge wood tree and as soon as we got stopped it went out.” It is for the second time that Telefonica Black is facing a challenge from the Ocean. During the first leg their rudder got damage by a hit.