Cochin or bust
Leg 2 Week 1 summary - 15:20 GMT Friday, November 21, 2008. |
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At the end of what has surely been one of the toughest-ever legs of the Volvo Ocean Race or even The Whitbread as it used to be known, the eight-strong fleet has finally pointed their bows north, away from the wet and wild winds of the Southern Ocean. At least for a short while anyway.
In a week that has been full of drama and destruction, the pace onboard the Volvo Open 70s has tested the crews’ endurance levels to a new level and the start day was no exception. |
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PUMA Ocean Racing power away at the
start of leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town,
South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Under clear blue skies and perfect conditions, PUMA (Ken Read / USA) led the fleet off the start line in Cape Town at the start of leg two. PUMA screamed off downwind, flying her huge red gennaker and going like a freight train while the rest of the fleet struggled to keep up. So did the spectators, although the clutch of helicopters filming the action had a bird’s eye view.
In 20 to 25 knots of wind, PUMA opened up a healthy lead until hitting the wall and coming to almost a complete standstill when the wind died; as it often does close to the shore in Cape Town. As the fleet compressed, it became a lottery as the boats spread out across Table Bay; all searching for zephyrs of breeze to propel them onwards to Cochin in India.
After one night at sea, everyone was settling into the rhythm of being back at sea after what seemed like too short a stopover in the beautiful city of Cape Town. It was a perplexing time for the skippers and navigators as they debated whether to go south and into strong breeze (setting up for maximum points at the scoring gate which had been set on the longitude 58 degrees east), or stay further north in lighter conditions but nearer the finish.
The fleet spread out across a north / south divide of 40 nautical miles and the leaderboard became distorted as it favoured the boats further north, although tactically, the position in the south with its potential of stronger winds would favour the southernmost boats. |
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Ericsson 4 get ready to hoist their
gennaker at the start at the start of leg 2 of the
Volvo Ocean Race from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin,
India.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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On day three, 17 November, tactics were still not clear. Ken Read and his men took PUMA north and spent three hours on port gybe before gybing south again, dipping Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael / BRA), Ericsson 3 (Anders Lewander / SWE) and Green Dragon (Ian Walker / GBR), but gaining some valuable northing. The north / south divide widened to 66 nm and, short of sleep and feeling ill from fevers and colds, the fleet was unprepared for the conditions that were to follow overnight.
As darkness fell, the fleet battled high winds and a confused sea brought on by the Algulhas Current which runs south down the east coast of South Africa. Over the shallows of the Algulhas Bank, the current meets cold water and with westerly winds coming the other way from the Southern Ocean, the result is a notoriously rough piece of water. |
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Ian Walker's Green Dragon sufferers
a broken boom as the fleet continued to wrestle with
strong gusts and treacherous seas as the second leg
of the race to India turned spiteful.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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The worst affected was Green Dragon who broke their boom and this came after a spectacular Chinese gybe. With the boom in two pieces, the crew carried on flying their mainsail loose footed. No one was hurt, but the crew was horribly disappointed.
PUMA flew off a wave and heard an ominous crack as the boat landed. Ken Read ran to the bow to find several cracks in the longitudinal frames in the bow section. Longitudinal frames are the spine of the boat, which prevent it from folding in half. It took the team seven hours to make a repair and also to patch the spinnaker back together.
Further back, Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking / NED) also blew out a spinnaker. Not unusual in itself, but the crew was suffering from sickness and repairing the damaged sail down below in the huge seas was a big challenge. Daryl Wislang / NZL and Jordi Calafat / ESP needed one hand for the spinnaker and the other for the bucket they were throwing up into. "Shows what a strong character they have," remarked skipper Bouwe Bekking. |
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Pablo Arrarte trimming in rough sea
on Telefonica Blue, on leg 2 of the Volvo Ocean Race,
from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Onboard Team Russia, the crew suffered their first ‘real, heavy, full-on, massive, flat-out broach’. The boat slowed to almost a standstill, as it became buried up to the mast in solid green water. Then, everything went into slow motion. Not a violent knockdown but the boat slowly turning, heeling more and more to the wrong side with the boom high up in the air until coming over, the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay to the new leeward side and flapping in the 35 knots of breeze. Fate was inexorable. There was nothing to be done but wait for the inevitable.
There was a stack of sails on the after starboard corner of the boat which was underwater and with the keel, both were holding the boat down to 90 degrees of its designed flotation. Skipper Andreas Hanakamp climbed the vertical deck (as you would normally climb a rock) to free the runner. Dutch navigator, Wouter Verbraak, handed him a knife to cut free the lashing. Cameron Wills from South Africa pulled the runner tail with Oleg Zherebtsov, the Russian owner of the project, grinding. Meanwhile, Jeremy Elliot from Ireland and Mikey Joubert from South Africa managed to get the keel moving to the other side to right the boat. Luckily, none of the crew were hurt and only the pulpit was bent on the boat. There was no other damage. |
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Martin Stromberg repairs Ericsson 3's
jib below decks. The jib got caught on the radar, ripping
the sail and bringing the radar down during a tack
shortly after they crossed the start line on leg 2
from Cape Town, South Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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By day 5, 19 November, six-race veteran, Magnus Olsson from Ericsson 3 was appealing to the Wind Gods. "Please no broach, please God, no broach," he said when he felt a huge gust of wind coming. "It was one of those times when you feel that the boat is sailing you and not the other way round," said MCM Gustav Morin.
The crew, although attached by their lifelines and harnesses, were washed down the length of the deck. Bowman Anders Dahlsjö lost his grip and smashed into a winch handle. The handle bent badly and Anders was in agony, holding his hands over his ribs. "Now we have another guy on pain killers," said Morin. |
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Rob Salthouse and Michael Muller on
the grinder at dusk, on 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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Sickness and ‘flu-like’ symptoms were still rife among the fleet, making this even more of an endurance test. "It’s strange for so much to be going on and not even noticing it," noted Guy Salter, MCM onboard Ericsson 4, who had a fever and sickness. "We had a broach yesterday (apparently) and also damaged one four headsails, but all I have noticed is the odd slide forward in the bunk when we plough into the back of a wave."
PUMA flew off yet another wave and landed in a heap, this time rather more seriously. Ken Read was having breakfast with Chris Nicholson and Justin Ferris at the time.
"That didn’t sound too good," said Justin. "Nope" said Ken. "Maybe it was just an unloaded sheet snapping up on deck," offered the ever-optimistic Chris Nicholson. Justin looked down and said, "Or maybe it was this large crack splitting the main longitudinal frame?" He was right.
The boat became a monster hospital, not for humans, but for their beautiful boat. The crew had managed to fix the damage done previously. However this time, the fix was to be more of a band-aid rather than the fairly solid splint that the team applied to the broken front longitudinals. |
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Casey Smith from Australia. The crew
of PUMA Ocean Racing make repairs to their boat after
sustaining serious structural damage in rough seas,
for the second time in 24 hours.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Albatrosses were circling the boats. Were they keep a safe watch as legend has it, these the souls of lost seafarers? Or, wondered Ken Read, ‘were they the vultures of the sea?’
Day six, 20 November and the worst of the carnage was over. The crews’ finally reached the scoring gate and were able to change course and point their boats to the north, out of the Southern Ocean.
Ericsson Racing Team made it a one / two at the gate, Ericsson 4 leading Ericsson 3. The wounded Green Dragon, still flying, but with one wing clipped, made it across in third place and the Russians were delighted with fourth.
Telefónica Blue was next through, while Telefónica Black (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) just pipped the limping cat PUMA by nine minutes. Delta Lloyd was last through as the wind eased and everyone started to focus on the strategy for the finish, although it was still just under 3,000 nm to the north. |
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Iker Martinez left and Pepe Ribes
hang on as a huge wave hits Telefonica Blue, on leg
2 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Cape Town, South
Africa to Cochin, India.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Today, day 7, 21 November, it’s all changed. The fleet is reaching in 20 knots of breeze. The air temperature has soared along with the spirits onboard every boat. The crew of PUMA has been able to laminate new carbon skins to their damaged boat and Green Dragon is sailing fast, but without her boom.
There is still just over 2,500 nm to go to the finish in Cochin but for the moment, all is calm in the Volvo Ocean Race fleet.
Leg 2 Day 7 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander / SWE) DTF 2570
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) + 13
Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +37
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +38
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) +39
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +71
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) +74
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez / ESP) +103
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