Watching And Waiting

For Ericsson 3, the finish of Volvo Ocean Race leg five cannot come soon enough.  It is a question of watching anxiously to see what the opposition is doing – in this case Ericsson 4, and waiting for the wind to fill in to propel them to a first-place finish in Rio de Janeiro.  The team has covered a measly 189 nm in the past 24 hours.

With every three-hour position report there is a small loss or gain to be made and today at 1300 GMT, Ericsson 3 was on the up, having clawed back 15 miles from Ericsson 4 to extend their margin to 72 nautical miles.

Currently 246 nm off the Brazilian coast and parallel to Port Alegre, Ericsson 3 is making 9.3 knots. Ericsson 4 is right on her tail and still has wind, while PUMA is 401 nm offshore, and making 11.5 knots average, the best in the fleet.  In the next three hours, there will be losses for Ericson 3 and gains for the chasing two until they reach the light spot and slow again.  

Meanwhile further back in the field, the westerly course chosen by Green Dragon has led them into all sorts of trouble, allowing Telefónica Blue, who stayed offshore, to close the gap between them to 175 nm.  Bouwe Bekking’s newly invigorated team now has a real chance now of catching Ian Walker and his men.

It has been a chapter of misfortune for Green Dragon that began three days ago when the weather models showed a fast route.

“Next, the wind headed too much to lay the Falklands and we lost precious hours having to tack through the islands,” explains Ian Walker.

“Following this, a high pressure bubbled up right in our path and just behind the leaders.  Negotiating this cost us a day,” he says.

“Still things were OK as we sailed upwind looking for the northwesterlies and a new low coming off the South American shore.  This arrived last night as predicted, but instead of bringing 15 knot winds and a route through the next high pressure, it brought lightning and no wind,” Walker concludes.  The team is now struggling with virtually no wind and none forecast for three days.

To make matters worse, the team is battling adverse current and Walker says they will not be in Rio for another six days.   This has meant the rationing of food and diesel, which is used to run the onboard systems.  The team has closed down non-essential systems, but as for food, the picture is not so good. 

This 12,300 nautical mile leg has turned into something of an epic.  It is the longest leg in the 36-year history of the event and it is beginning to look as if an elapsed time of around 40 days will be recorded.  Food is now being rationed on all boats and the daily food bags are being re-organised, each time making the day’s food bag emptier. 

“I am sure we aren’t the only boat complaining of lack of food at this point, but we are starting to run pretty low and every routing run we do after we get new weather is showing longer and longer elapsed times,” rues PUMA’s skipper Ken Read. 

For Green Dragon, the situation is worse.  They started the leg with 40 days worth of food, which a week ago was split to make another two days of food rations. 

“When guys are tired and hungry there is nothing like food to create friction between them,” says Walker, who has split the remaining food 11 ways leaving each of the crew to manage his own food, to prevent any arguments.  “We are already hungry and it will get worse – simple as that,” says Walker rather matter of factly. 

The team onboard Telefónica Blue is hungry too, and drooling at the prospect of Rio’s famous restaurants. 

“The ‘all you can eat’ meat restaurant seems to be very high on everyone’s priority list, including mine!” writes Simon Fisher.  “Right now, just thinking about it making my stomach rumble.” 

There is just the small matter of over 1100 miles to go before they can tuck in. 

Leg Five Day 38: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions

Cape Horn Scoring Gate