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Enjoying
Being ‘In The Zone’ - Team Russia Media Team
00:04 GMT 13 October 2008. |
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From onboard Team Russia
and the Volvo Ocean Race
Media Team. |
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With
almost a week at sea the guys onboard Kosatka have now
truly entered ‘the zone'; blogs from the boat give a
real sense of everyone settling into their own routines.
Read all blogs here: http://www.teamrussia.org/en/blog/
Although far from a normal existence, as Mark Covell
(Media Crew) writes; "There isn't anything 'normal'
about the mad turbo charged boats we are sailing. But
on this day, day six, the word that comes to mind most
readily is 'normality'. It is starting to feel 'normal'
to crawl aft, down on my hands and knees in a thin swirl
of water, through the watertight bulkhead and leaver
myself into the media station."
For the sailing crew, they are just loving their sail
south; Mikey Joubert in his blog today makes it clear
why he's doing his 4th Volvo; "Every time I wake
up for a watch, it is with excitement because we're in
for another 4 hours of sailing that most people would
never experience. 20-25 knots of wind and boat speed
with full size spinnaker up, short sharp seas and it
gets better...... its warm." |
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Jeremy Elliott below decks on
Team Russia's Kosatka, fixing the A4 kite.
Photo © Mark Covell / Team Russia / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Life
on board has settled in nicely. It's taken until now
for everyone to recover from the seriously stressful
passage out of the Med. At the time of writing Team Russia
has overtaken Green Dragon, and is now standing in 5th
place; close on the heels of Delta Lloyd. The team covered
around 470 miles through the water in the last 24 hours;
taking in a few gybes, that still leaves an impressive
24-hour run.
With the final fix to the ram boots (fashioned from Mark's
shiny new crew bag) and the 24-hour sewing machine epic
to fix the spinnaker, the team seems to have got over
their initial run of problems. Andreas reports; "The
boat is holding together great and (almost) everything
is fully operational. The watermaker produces water,
winches all working, keel canting, halyard locks holding,
quadrants still firm, instruments showing some values",
good news for the sailors and the shore team.
Andreas did then go on to reported this morning; "We
had a little disaster last night when the massive beanbag
we use for sleeping exploded right in the navstation.
Snow everywhere, almost a snowstorm. Little snowballs
of polystyrene that stick to everything, You find them
between your toes, on legs, arms." It looks like
Benno will have the sewing machine out again later.
Navigator Wouter's thoughts turn to the unusual wind
direction the fleet have been experiencing; "We
have been able to go straight south instead of the much
longer traditional western route. The east waves are
sucking in the wind from all sides, which make the winds
so much more northerly than normal. This northerly component
gives us a great opportunity to first dive south and
get into the stronger trades whilst at the same time
giving us a good wind direction to hard west to setup
for the Doldrums later," he explains. |
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Rodion
Luka sleeping after a long night onboard Team Russia's
Kosatka on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo © Mark Covell / Team Russia / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Messages
of Support
Some wonderful message of support from friends, family
and fans from all over the world are being sent to the
team through the ‘send a message' area in the Team Russia
website; http://www.teamrussia.org/en/send-a-message/.
The guys on the boat receive an email each day with the
messages sent - keep them coming.
Audio, Video and Images
The latest audio MP3 interviews from the team can also
been listened to via the team website - look for the
audio button on the home page. Audio is right with the
image gallery - these pictures are updated as soon as
they are released from the boat. The video format has
taken a little longer to integrate into our site - but
we're hoping to have cracked this by the weekend.
As watch leader Stig Westergaard ponders; "I wonder
how the nerve wrecking doldrums are going to affect the
temperature onboard? There is nothing as unnerving as
being becalmed. So I will get back to you in a couple
of days to let you know if we have all jumped ship, committed
hara-kiri or are simply dancing joyfully round the mast."
We'll keep you updated with the progress of the good
ship Kosatka. Have a great weekend.
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for
all the latest news! |
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Scuttlebutt Europe Daily News Feed. |
Produced by boats.com Europe, Scuttlebutt Europe is a digest of sailing news and opinion, regatta results, new boat and gear information and letters from sailors. |
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