Commanding Lead For Telefónica Blue
Leg 4 Day 8 - 14:40 GMT Sunday, January 25, 2009. |
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Telefónica Blue, with Bouwe Bekking / NED and his men, has emerged from the aftermath of yesterday’s carnage, unscathed, other than breaking their wind instruments and now have a commanding lead.
Bekking was directing operations yesterday from his bunk, with an injury to a muscle in his back, and paid tribute to his two watch captains, Jordi Calafat / ESP and South Africa’s Jonathan Swain. |
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Pablo Arrarte Pepe Ribes onboard Telefonica
Blue calling manouvre during a sail change trying to
hide from the wave.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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"They all worked as great team in the last 36 hours. The only thing I could do was to be awake and give my input and advice,
which was above all, ‘BOYS, KEEP IT IN ONE PIECE’."
The team registered 55 knots of wind, prior to losing their wind instruments, which navigator Simon Fisher said, meant even looking upwind was nearly impossible with so much spray from the wind. "The sea looked very white and it was very wet on deck," he said. |
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Tacking and stacking carry on after
the big storm onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 4 of
the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao, China.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The team centralised the canting keel, sailed with three reefs in the mainsail and a storm jib set and the rest of the sails were safely stowed below to ensure that they could sail as slowly as possible, but with enough steerage to avoid big waves. A professional display of good seamanship without a doubt. "We always new this was going to be a horrible leg," Bekking said.
Bekking added that being stuck down below in his bunk was the best way to feel how big the crashes were. He could tell who was steering and when the boat was about to launch off a wave. |
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Ericsson 3 getting closer to the Taiwan
coast on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore
to Qingdao, China.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Last night they started to crash the boat too hard, so the team invested some of their lead to sail away from the finish on a
better angle to the waves. But now they are back up to full race mode and Bekking is able to move around the boat.
Telefónica Blue has now safely crossed the Luzon Strait and is sailing 25 miles offshore up the eastern coast of Taiwan, just northeast of Botel Tobago Island.
Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson / SWE) is just six miles from the southern tip of Taiwan and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA) is 13 miles behind her. |
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Ericsson 4 hit rough weather, on leg
4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao,
China.
Photo © Guy Salter / Ericsson 4 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Elsewhere in the fleet, the three damaged boats are making progress, but Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) has had to retire. Mark Chisnell, in his TEN ZULU report, gives a full account of the damage caused yesterday at: http://www.volvooceanrace.org/news/article/2009/January/TEN-ZULU-L4-D8/index.aspx
Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR), PUMA (Ken Read / USA) and Delta Lloyd (Roberto Bérmudez / ESP) have all resumed racing, but are now many miles behind Telefónica Blue. PUMA has just started out across the Strait, while the others still have some way to go in the lee of Luzon Island. |
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Telefonica Black in 50 knot winds near
the Philippines, on leg 4 of the Volvo Ocean Race,
from Singapore to Qingdao, China.
Photo © Mikel Pasabant / Telefonica Black / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Telefónica Black has officially retired from this leg. The boat has a crack in the hull, which is of some concern and the team is heading towards Manila where they will rendezvous with their shore crew and design team, to assess what needs to be done to get the boat back in shape and ready for the in-port race in Qingdao on 7 February.
Skipper of Green Dragon, Ian Walker, said today, "We are expecting a tortuous trip, where will have to balance preserving the boat with our makeshift repairs, against getting to Qingdao as quickly as possible." |
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Ian Budgen / GBR helmsman / trimmer.
The Green Dragon crew brave the storms, on leg 4 of
the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao, China.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Delta Lloyd got going rather quicker than they intended. Yesterday, they ended up in the Bay of Salomague, which was nicely secluded. The first thing the crew did was to rest and during the night, Green Dragon pulled in to the same bay.
After sunrise, they tackled their repair list. Mending the mainsail was by far the biggest job, but David Pella also fixed the steering wheel which had broken on the outer ring. The rest of the crew cleaned up the boat. |
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Team Delta Lloyd ripped the leach of
the mainsail in 40 knots of wind and 5 meter high waves.
They had to put up a storm jib and a trysail, while
surging for a bay to do the repairs on the main.
Photo © Sander Pluijm / Team Delta Lloyd / Volvo Ocean Race.
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"Our goal was to set sail at 18:00 hours local time but, after seeing Green Dragon weighing anchor, the work speed increased even more and we managed to raise anchor at 17:10 local time," said navigator Frits Koek.
The team is currently reporting a high swell left over from yesterday’s storm. But with just 11.5 knots of wind, it is causing no problems.
Ken Read, whose red and black PUMA, snapped her boom in two yesterday, described the conditions yesterday as worst than those found in the notorious Bass Strait. "This is the nastiest place on earth he said."
For Telefónica Blue, the air temperatures is steadily dropping although the warm current is keeping the sea temperature up. They have 822 nm to run to the finish are anticipating crossing the finish in Qingdao late on the 28 January / early 29 January.
The stopover in Qingdao will be hard for the teams because it will be short and cold. And as well as an in-port race, they have a big leg ahead of them to prepare for. Leg five is the longest leg in the history of the race; 12,300 nm to Rio de Janeiro. |
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Ken Read left, Rob Salthouse centre
and Erle Williams onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg
4 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Singapore to Qingdao,
China.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg 4 Day - 8 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(Boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
1. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) DTF 822 nm
2. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson / SWE) +64
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) +77
4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +203
5. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bérmudez / ESP) +296
6. Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +297
7. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) RTD
8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) DNS
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