Survival Mode In Angry Seas

There is no respite for the six boats still racing in leg four of the Volvo Ocean Race.  The storms are back with gusts of up to 45 knots for the leg leader Telefónica Blue. The team is in full survival mode, sailing with the mainsail safely lashed to the boom and flying just a small headsail.  The waves are even more confused than 48-hours ago and skipper Bouwe Bekking/NED reports that the team is taking it very steadily. 

Currently 56 nautical miles off Cape Sandiao on the northeastern tip of Taiwan, the team reported a collision with a submerged object, which damaged the ‘crash bow’ of the boat.  “The real, structural bow is further back, so we are not taking on water,” explained skipper Bouwe Bekking. 

The team now has two men down.  Daryl Wislang from New Zealand has hurt his shoulder and is confined to his bunk.  There is little improvement in Bekking’s muscle injury to his back, and the team is expecting another full action night ahead.  All the time, the team is being pressed by the two Ericsson boats, which have closed the deficit to 33 miles.  Ericsson 3, in second place, is just approaching the Zuna Shoals, two thirds of the way up the eastern side of Taiwan, where the Philippine Sea meats the East China Sea and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) is 22 miles closer inshore.

Onboard PUMA, the first of the ‘injured boats’ and now in fourth place, skipper Ken Read, caught his finger in the makeshift mainsail trimming system, rigged by the crew due to the lack of boom, which broke yesterday.  The new trimming system includes three separate purchases on the clew of the mainsail to hold it in place and the accident happened when six of the crew were on deck trying to shake out one of the reefs. 

“I was on the bottom purchase and about to ease it, when we fell off a wave and I braced myself on the purchase that runs to weather.  Well, the exact time I went to brace myself was the exact time that it was being eased through a large titanium block.  The block quite easily sucked my left index finger in until I gave a little ‘hold’ call and then instinctively just pulled it out.  Not much of the last 30% of my finger left,” he said.

Read has now had his finger cleaned and bandaged by onboard medic Shannon Falcone/AUT and is on painkillers.  The boat is currently half way up the eastern side of Taiwan.

Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez/ESP) has cut the corner at the southern tip of Taiwan, once safely across the Luzon Strait, and opted for a route which took the team between Little Lan Islet and the Goatai Rock in the Philippine Sea.  

 “A little bit of manoeuvring through some shallows and along some islands, and we are in open waters,” reports navigator Frits Koek/NED. 

Bringing up the rear is the limping Dragon, whose skipper, Ian Walker says, “There is nothing we want more right now than to sail into Qingdao, however long it takes.” 

After affecting structural repairs yesterday, the team proceeded very carefully out into an angry head sea.  It wasn’t long before Ian Walker and watch captain Neal McDonald heard two dreaded cracks.  “We were inspecting the bow repair at the time and, while the repair held firm, the bulkhead let go either side of it,” Walker explained.

The team is soldiering on slowly, nursing the boat as best they can.  They are currently 38nm south of Taiwan. 

Computer routing software is predicting the early hours of Thursday 29 January for the first boat to finish in Qingdao, but with 671 nm left of runway for Telefónica Blue, and with Ericsson 3 nipping at her heels, coupled with the increasing breeze and plummeting temperatures, the race is far from over.   

Leg Four Day 9: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions