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Fire-Breathing
Dragon
Leg 1 Day 10 15:12 GMT Monday October 20th, 2008. |
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From the Volvo
Ocean Race Media Team. |
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Ian Walker/GBR
and the Green Dragon team is breathing fire on the rest of
the fleet from their western corner of the Volvo fleet as the
eight boats pick their way through the black clouds and squalls
of the Doldrums. The next 24 hours will be critical and it
will be partly about luck and partly about who gets the new
breeze first and can edge out into the south-easterly trade
winds.
Although Green Dragon snatched the lead from the claws
of PUMA (Ken Read/USA) at 1600 GMT yesterday, her lead
is decreasing as Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri)
creeps closer, gaining nine miles on the Dragon in the
past three hours. The fleet is now spread out over 254
nautical miles west to east. |
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Green Dragon leaps over a wave after
the start from Alicante, Spain for leg 1 of The Volvo
Ocean Race.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Delta Lloyd
(Ger O' Rourke/IRL) is the most easterly yacht of the fleet,
PUMA, in third place is 31 miles off Green Dragon's port flank,
and Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander/SWE) in fourth has found a
new friend in Telefónica Blue and the two boats are
now happily latched together, both 28 nm to the west of Kosatka,
Team's Russia's blue boat, currently in seventh place.
The last 24 hours has been good for Telefónica Blue
(Bouwe Bekking/NED). "The boat has been going really
nicely, we've found good wind and we've really improved
on things," said navigator Simon Fisher in a radio
interview today. "Everyone is working very hard and
hoping we will get the speed to get out of here," he
said. "We have really, really been focusing on our
strategy but it is good to get on deck and you can see
quite a lot as well. It is as much about using your eyes
as using your computers." |
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Team Delta Lloyd at sea after the
start in Alicante, Spain for leg 1 of The Volvo Ocean
Race.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Conditions
are horrible for the crews. Lots of big clouds and plenty of
rain has meant that although the crews have been able to enjoy
a fresh-water shower, the novelty soon wore off after the first
five minutes when everyone got cold. "The squalls come
out of the blue, and everything has to be prepared in advance" says
Mikel Pasabant, MCM onboard second placed Telefónica
Black.
Today, a massive signal appeared on the radar and onboard
the black Spanish boat, the crew got ready to experience
the worst: "Trimmers preparing peelings (preparing
to change sails), helmsman pointing the boat to where the
on-duty watch said, harnesses on, the MCM preparing his
arms as if in a pre-war notice... still camera, handheld
camcorder and the infra-red stern cam," described
Mikel.
Everything was in position to get the most from the situation,
but as the boat approached the cloud, King Neptune intervened. "The
cloud started to split in two as if letting us go by without
disturbing us and we crossed exactly through a gate that
opened for us as if on purpose, with massive storm clouds
each side," Mikel explains. "Thanks Neptune, it seems
you are with the Blackies!" |
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Some of the crew onboard Telefonica
Black take a rest on leg 1 of the Volvo Ocean Race.
Photo © Mikel Pasabant / Equipo Telefonica.
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Away out to
the east, Delta Lloyd has had a problem with the rig, when,
during a sail change from the A4 downwind sail to the masthead
code zero, the leeward jumper (part of the mast) came falling
out of the rig, bounced down the deck and landed in the back
of the boat narrowly missing the crew. It has taken 12 hours
to repair it. "Martin Watts has come up with an ingenious
solution to re-attach the jumper back to the mast," explained
Matthew Gregory in a radio interview today. It took Martin
and Johnny (Gerd Van Poortman) an hour and half up the rig
to complete the job. "It was a pretty big project," said
Gregory.
The next stage of the course will be the rounding of the Brazilian Island,
Fernando de Noronha, approximately 673 nautical miles away to the south-west
where another round of scores can be added. The fleet is expected to
be in the region in about two day's time.
During the past three hours, only Team Russia (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT)
has lost out to Green Dragon, while the bulk of the fleet has made small
gains. Although PUMA has slipped back through the fleet to third place,
she has averaged the highest boat speed over the last three hours, while
Telefónica Black has the best 24-hour run of 223 nautical miles.
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On the foredeck of Ericsson 3 at dusk.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3.
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Leg One Day
10: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to leader)
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) DTF 4031
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +27
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +35
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +41
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +45
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +46
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +51
Delta Lloyd IRL (Ger O'Rourke/IRL) +86
Visit www.volvooceanrace.org for
all the latest news! |
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The Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09 will be the 10th
running of this ocean marathon. Starting from Alicante in Spain,
on 4 October 2008 with in-port racing, it will, for the first
time, take in Cochin, India, Singapore and Qingdao, China before
finishing in St Petersburg, Russia for the first time in the
history of the race.
Spanning some 37,000 nautical miles, stopping
at 11 ports and taking nine months to complete,
the Volvo Ocean Race is the world's premier
yacht race for professional racing crews. |
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The official website: www.volvooceanrace.org |
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