Print this articleVolvo Ocean Race Leg 2 - Ericsson 4 Takes Line Honors
Cochin, India - The first and second yachts have made port in this leg of the 'round the world Volvo Ocean Race, and what a nasty leg it's been. Yikes! Several boats sustained major damage in the first days, and those that haven't crossed the line yet are in for a long, slow sail into India as the the winds have continued to drop. Team Russia, for instance, has reported making less than 46 miles in 24 hours. Leg two conditions can be best described as too much, followed by too little.
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A loud bang was heard amongst the carbon groans and crashes into walls of water and rig jarring shakes that I was getting used to.
I shone my torch around the deck and saw that the staysail was at a strange angle and thought the tack line had blown. A simple repair, but a pain of a job. Unfortunately as I bore away to reduce the load on the staysail I saw what had really happened. The tack fitting had blown and as the line was released it ripped the spinlock jammer clean off the deck!
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captain jac
Sailing Aviva in the Vendée Globe. Dee Caffari
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Sailing Photo of the Week - On the Sea, or In it?
Volvo Ocean Race - Hard not to get your Pumas wet on this ride! The cockpit is definitely awash as the yacht Puma is making its way along the Volvo Ocean Race. The Volvo 70 class is not exactly a dry boat, as one can see here. Notice that the patch of blue sky makes it all seem tolerable. Yet that same scene under dark skies would look terrifying. A little bit of sunshine seems to make all the difference.
Overnight the lead group has slowed and bunched up as they sailed into the lighter winds associated with a small ridge of high pressure. Yesterday morning the difference from 1st to 9th was 72Nm, now that difference has been cut to 42Nm, after 18 days of racing that is pretty incredible. The big shaker and mover is Safran overnight who yesterday morning was 181Nm behind the leader and is now 117Nm, a huge gain and significant because the other boats around Marc have not managed to make the same gains. In fact Safran has been marching up the fleet for sometime, I spoke to Brian Thompson a
After losing time under the famous cloud yesterday, I’ve really got back into the thick of the action. In fact I’ve just been speaking with Seb, and I can see Armel. It’s quite nice to be sailing within sight of everyone.
Our monohulls being fairly similar in terms of performance, it’s rare to be able to escape. Having said that it’s true that since the start, there have been two or three tricky passages which have favoured those behind. The opposite would be most welcome right now so we can benefit too!
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Sailing Roxy in the Vendée Globe
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Well, after a day of squalls yesterday, the sun is shining today and the wind seems a bit more consistent (albeit on the nose), which is a good news.
More good news is that the more consistent wind enabled me to sleep LOADS last night, so I am on great form.