Puma Makes A Move
Leg 2 Day 3 - 14:55 GMT Monday, November 17, 2008. |
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| This morning at 08:10 GMT Ken Read / USA decided to take PUMA further north and spent three hours on port gybe before gybing back again at just after 11:00 GMT, dipping behind Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / USA) Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) and Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR) but gaining some valuable northing. The black cat is now just 16 miles south of Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED), which is the furthest north. |
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PUMA Ocean Racing power away from the
start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town,
South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Andreas Hanakamp (Team Russia) and Roberto Bermudez, the new skipper onboard Team Delta Lloyd followed suit and gybed. The fleet is spread across a north / south divide of 66 nm between Ericsson 4 in the south and Telefónica Blue in the north.
Being the furthest to the north, Telefónica Blue is showing top of the leaderboard, and PUMA’s move to the north has moved her up to second place. |
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Onboard PUMA Ocean Racing as they power
away from the start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race
from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Ericsson 3 has recorded the fastest 24-hour run of 495 nm in the past 24 hours and over the past hour, has had the highest average speed of 22.5 nm.
Navigator Simon Fisher says that onboard it is pretty wet, but luckily the weather is kind and not too cold and the nights are well lit by the moonlight. "Right now, we are being conservative and steady, ready to pounce when the conditions start to swing our way." he added.
Fisher, after having very little sleep in the first 36 hours of the leg has had some quality time in his bunk, which he says has made all the difference. "I’m feeling good and looking forward to what lies ahead. For sure, this is going to continue to be the closet of races, so it is going to pay to be alert." |
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Skipper Anders Lewander at the helm
of Ericsson 3 during one of the periods of light conditions
at the start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from
Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The fleet is now out of the worst of the Algulhas current, which runs south down the east coast of South Africa. Over the shallows of the Agulhas Bank, it meets cold water and the westerly winds coming the other way from the Southern Ocean. The result is a notoriously rough piece of water.
"The unpleasant part of the current is that it pressures the waves into strange, unpredictable towers," said Ericsson 3 skipper Anders Lewander last night. "The sea looks quite like the lava fields in Lanzarote, but blue and living," he added. |
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All hands to the grinders on Ericsson
3 at the start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from
Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| Some of the teams are suffering from the flu and it is inevitable that it will spread through the boat. Ken Read (PUMA) says his head is ‘killing him’, but it is not just flu. "I just smashed it into a winch structure under the deck getting my foul weather gear off. You would think that I would know it was there by now," he said. |
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Team Russia at the start of leg 2 of
the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa to
Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| Matt Gregory, the navigator onboard Delta Lloyd is also suffering. "I’ve developed a cold over the past two days. It’s most likely a reaction to the five immunisation shots that I was required to receive by the racing rules just before we left Cape Town," he says. "I have lost my voice, gained a fever, a headache and generally feel awful." But, he adds that he will keep smiling, encouraging performance and personally trying to find the fastest path to India that he can. |
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Team Delta Lloyd at the start of
leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South
Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg Two
Day Three - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) DTF 3928 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +6
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +11
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) +14
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +17
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) +30
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) +56
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +60
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all the latest news! |
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