Foggy start
to Atlantic crossing
Leg 7 Day 2 - 14:55 GMT Sunday, May 17, 2009. |
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| For the fleet racing in leg seven of the Volvo Ocean Race, the city of Boston is long forgotten and so is the whale exclusion zone. But it’s the fog that they have to concentrate on during the early stage of this final ocean leg, before three coastal legs take the race to its conclusion in St Petersburg in late June. |
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Heavy fog sets in as the fleet head
out at the start of leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Rick Tomlinson / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| At 13:00 GMT today and in around 20 knots of south-southeasterly breeze, PUMA was leading the pack briskly east towards Cape Sable Island; a small Canadian island located at the southernmost point of the Nova Scotia peninsula. From here they have around 400 nm to run to the scoring gate set off Newfoundland. |
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Foggy conditions and tight racing onboard
PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Rick Deppe / PUMA Ocean Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| Only 11 nautical miles separate the fleet from first to last and six nautical miles from north to south. Telefónica Blue is furthest to the north with PUMA alongside. Further south is Ericsson 4 with Green Dragon to her south, but 10 miles astern. Ericsson 3 and Delta Lloyd are further south again and Fernando Echávarri with Telefónica Black has taken the most southerly route. |
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Jordi Calafat and Pablo Arrarte covering
themself from an imminent cold shower, onboard Telefonica
Blue, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Gabriele Olivo / Telefonica Blue / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Green Dragon’s tactics are being partially controlled by the 200,000 players in the Volvo Ocean Race online game. Every 12 hours during this leg, the virtual skippers in the race are sent a poll from Green Dragon. It includes a description of their current situation, such as details on weather conditions, boat condition and the crew, as well as an outlook for the next 24/26/48/72 hours.
Each poll includes at least three options for the Green Dragon crew to take. Green Dragon can then, at the discretion of skipper Ian Walker or navigator Ian Moore, follow the guidance of the online community. If the team decides not to take the advice, they will send an explanation to the gaming community for their reasoning. |
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Skipper Ian Walker looking for a way
through the fleet, just after the start of leg 7 from
Boston to Galway.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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| Late last night, Ian Walker sent his second question to be polled by the gaming community. The first one received over 10,000 votes. "It will be fascinating to see how the gaming community’s choices compare with the decisions Ian Moore and I make onboard," he said. |
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Richard Mason helming in the cold misty
conditions, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Gustav Morin / Ericsson 3 / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Right from the start and throughout the first night, fog has been causing some anxious moments in the fleet. In the first hour of the leg, immediately after the start inside Boston Harbour, a huge tanker loomed out of the mist, straight into the path of the racing fleet.
"When there were only a couple of minutes left to the mark, we suddenly saw an enormous tanker coming out from the mist and steering straight towards us. It was surrounded by police boats with screaming sirens and I think the captain was pretty irritated when we tacked straight in front of the ship to quickly go around the mark," explained MCM Gustav Morin onboard Ericsson 3. |
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The Nor'Easter tanker bears down on
the windward mark of the race course as Delta Lloyd
approaches, at the start of leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Dave Kneale / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Fog is one of the worst hazards at sea and it means constant radar watch. However, radar does not pick up the dozens of lobster pots, which littered the area just after the fleet set out into the open ocean. In his first 20 minutes on deck, Neal McDonald from Green Dragon had to avoid 15 of them.
At just after midnight GMT, Ericsson 3 was again reporting very dense fog. "We had Magnus Olsson on the bow looking for crossing boats sailing out of the channel," explained navigator Aksel Magdahl. |
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Gonzalo Araujo explains the next move,
onboard Telefonica Black, on leg 7 from Boston to Galway.
Photo © Anton Paz / Telefonica Black / Volvo Ocean Race.
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While onboard Telefónica Blue, skipper Bouwe Bekking described a near miss with a powerboat just after the start, which came with centimetres of the blue boat. "It could have been very ugly," Bekking said.
Sistership Telefónica Black passed very close to some fishing boats. "They suddenly appear on the radar screen, but are well hidden in the fog," wrote navigator Roger Nilson, who went on to explain that fog is common in this part of the world as the warm, southerly winds spread over the cold water. "Probably the fog will stay until after the Grand Banks, where the water will be warmer due to the Gulf Stream," he said. |
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Green Dragon working their way through
the fleet, just after the start of leg 7 from Boston
to Galway.
Photo © Guo Chuan / Green Dragon Racing / Volvo Ocean Race.
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Leg 7 Day 2 - 13:00 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(Boat name / country / skipper / nationality / distance to finish)
1. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read / USA) DTF 2513 nm
2. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri / ESP) +1
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael / BRA) +1
4. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson / SWE) +1
5. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking / NED) +2
6. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez / ESP) +7
7. Green Dragon IRL / CHN (Ian Walker / GBR) +11
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp / AUT) DNS
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