Volvo Ocean Race - Leg 5 Day 12

Violent squalls bring big gains and losses

All five boats racing down the South Pacific Ocean in leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race are engaged in a battle with nature. The doldrums and the associated clouds and squalls are causing big gains and huge losses across the fleet as the boats get pushed further away from their optimum courses by the unstable weather.

“It’s all about your route through the cloud minefield,” says Guy Salter from Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) who is clinging onto first place. “Often you just can’t avoid them [the clouds], and have to accept that, several miles away, your competitor is having an easier time of it,” Salter explained, as the team looks over its shoulders to see PUMA (Ken Read/USA) and Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) 26 nm astern and gaining.

According to Salter, the clouds have often left Ericsson 4 in a complete void without even a breath of wind, before suddenly sending down a squall with such speed that the team has often found itself a fair way off their optimal course, and has been pushed further south than they planned.

With clouds, come big gains and losses. Two days ago, Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) sailed into PUMA’s world and has been their constant companion ever since.

“We then started a 48-hour flat out drag race and slowly pulled out a very hard-earned four-mile lead, only to have it evaporate late last night in one squall,” explains PUMA’s skipper Kenny Read.

“We slowed to 11 knots, they came roaring up at 20 and it has been game on ever since,” he said. At 1300 GMT today, PUMA had regained a marginal upper hand and is in second place. Both boats gybed onto a southerly course just after 0930 GMT this morning and are split across a lateral divide of 6.5 nm west to east, and making about five knots.

The squalls in this region appear to be quite prevalent, and can last up to two hours. The first signs of a vicious squall approaching is a general darkening of the sky and a thickening of the clouds to weather of the boat. The leading edge of the squall is accompanied by a high probability that there will be a significant wind shift.

Rick Deppe says that when they observe the high black cloud, light rain starts to fall which lasts for about five minutes. It is generally followed by a short pause in the rain, which may be accompanied by possible clearing of the clouds. “The break will only be for a few minutes before the large drops start to fall from the puffy nimbus clouds that make up the body of the squall,” he says. These conditions are likely to last for at least another three days as the fleet picks its way towards Fiji.

“Once the call has been made that we are about to get hit [by a squall], the crew has to react quickly to make the boat safe – wind speeds in a squall can easily double or increase by 20 knots. The squalls generate a sloppy wave pattern and the boat starts to crash and bump because the waves are disorganised and random, “explains Deppe.

Making the most of the conditions and very much back in the game is Ian Walker’s Green Dragon. The team is 86 nm to the east of Ericsson 4’s track and averaging a steady 13.5 knots.

“The fleet has opted to follow our easterly route, which has consolidated some very big gains for us,” said Ian Walker who celebrates his 39th birthday today. “We have taken over 200 miles out of the leaders and are very much back in the hunt. It looks like everyone is shaping up to go east of Fiji, where a large area of no wind awaits the fleet,” he said.

Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) is in fourth place, but closing quickly and averaging 10 knots of boatspeed. Bekking is still playing it conservatively, following the pack and not making any radical decisions. Their track takes them 84 nm west of the tracks of PUMA and Ericsson 3.

“Our boatspeed over the last few days has been really good and we feel that if we can get into the same patch of water as the others in this light to moderate reaching, then we will do well, “ said navigator Tom Addis. The team is happy to follow the leaders down to the first scoring gate at 36 degrees south, where they expect a restart with the fleet.

Although the fleet continues to battle with all that nature can throw their way, occasionally the wind Gods smile and clouds arrive at just the right time to give a real boost in the right direction.

“Breeze picking up now – 14 knots of boats speed, and, by the look of this cloud, it is lined up quite nicely for us and we should get quite a nice run out of it for 10 miles or so. Nice, friendly helpful, benevolent, thoughtful cloud…” wrote Tom Addis from Telefónica Blue at 0705 GMT today.

Leg Five Day 12: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 8,830 nm
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) +26
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +26
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +62
Green Dragon IRL/CHI (Ian Walker/GBR) +88

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

Positions are updated every three hours on www.volvooceanrace.org

ERICSSON 4 LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 12.02.09 1135 GMT

It’s been very active aboard today - this purely down to one reason - clouds, and lots of them!

It’s been hard watching the boys today as they have fought tooth and nail to gain whatever we could from what often appeared to be a very dire situation.

The clouds often left us in a complete void with out even a breath of wind - before suddenly sending down a squall with such speed that we often found ourselves a fair way off our optimal course.

This has been similar to the various late night 'bar tales' told of the Atlantic doldrum belt of races past - so one could almost bet that this area is a fair bit more active in the cumulus department. It’s funny how things were so much worse in times gone by.

Sail changes have been well into the double figures today - in fact we have probably changed sails more today than we did in the first six days of racing.

There has been a constant rain for the last 10 hours - not like the like the ever-present rain of the UK and Eire shores - but a low frequency large drop rain which gets you wet but not in the same way as it’s fine drop brother does.

The radar comes into play a lot in these conditions - keeping track of the rain, of which there is plenty dotted around the screen. One good thing is that everyone managed to get a good fresh water shower - so the fuggy haze inside the boat has cleared and the nostrils get a break - for a day or so!

So with the clouds comes big gains and losses - and as the sched is what we depend on every 3 hours - so it does hurt a little when you don’t do so well on a few - like we haven’t done today - although we have had a slightly better one recently. It’s all about your route through the cloud minefield - but often you just can’t avoid them and have to accept that several miles away your competitor is having an easier time of it.... for now

Today I managed to consult every member in private and start our little sweepstake on our arrival time at Cape Horn - everyone gets one guess and the closest to the time wins the prize - which on this occasion is a bottle from each member - but as always I’m sure there will be the odd one who evades the debt. I even got Jules to play along as I feel that this far out (6000+) he won’t have too much insight into the outcome. Navigators are usually banned from these bets - in the same way that 'the best man' is excluded from the bet at the wedding of the length of his speech - but I do feel that the navigator doesn’t have quite the same advantage as the best man.

All bets are off if we don’t make it though and without sounding all doom and gloom this is still possible as 30 days racing on a boat like this does take its toll on all the gear - so it’s still a big game of knowing when to push and when to ease off. After all we still have nearly 9000 miles to the finish!

Guy Salter - MCM

ERICSSON 3 LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 25.02.09 25 February 2009 0722 GMT

We are still in the tricky Doldrums, fighting closely with Puma. The wind and weather is changing extremely quickly in this convergence zone and the wind just went from 10 to 30 knots. It was really what we call a ‘shitfight’, but we handled it well and actually overtook the Il Mostro.

We are now in second place.

Between the squalls and heavy air it’s really nice and calm onboard, and today I took the opportunity to give you some info about my fellow crew mates: So, who are we onboard?

I would say we are a bunch of very different guys but with same determination, winning spirit and never-give-up-attitude. We are all on a mission and trying the best ever we can to show ourselves we can do this race. Well, not only to finish, but to be on the podium. We have the talent, but not the experience. Gladly we are fast to learn.

We have, since the start, developed to a core team with some new faces joining lately. No 1:Aksel Magdahl/NOR, our navigator and brains, is a young smart and sometimes grumpy guy, only because his nav station is so exposed to everybody and he gets the same questions 100 times a day. Who would not get a bit grumpy? He is also sneaking candies inside the nav desk. In short, an extremely competitive nature.

No 2: Martin Strömberg/SWE is the next youngest onboard. He is always in a happy mood and would never say a bad word about anybody. ‘Strumpan’, as we call him, is a solid trimmer and takes care of all our sails and there is, every once in a while, a lot to do. He has really grown into his boots during the race.

No 3: One of our two bowmen, the crazy Swede Martin Krite. He is a good laugh, joking all the time. But when he is in front of the mast there is definitely no room for jokes. He hates mistakes and if you make one, you will hear it loudly. He takes care of his job with a lot of attitude and pride, double check, even triple check if necessary. He has a good feel as a trimmer as well.

No 4: Anders Dahlsjö/SWE, our other solid bowmen and one of the members of the Scandinavian coffee club. ‘Big Anders’ is boat captain Jens Dolmer’s right hand man, always working hard and technically very skilful. One of the guys you really need when stacking. Anders also makes a good helmsman giving his watch mate Mange Olsson sometimes a bit of rest.

No 5: Usually Richard Mason but on this leg our newcomer Arve Roaas/NOR, a race veteran. Coming to a Volvo boat for the first time during a night and starting immediately racing with a crew you don’t know and who had been together for 17 months, is not an easy task.

Arve is a happy fellow and has fortunately adapted very well in the team and his Norwegian is understandable, even for a Swedish-speaking Finn like me.

No 6: Eivind Melleby/NOR, one of the principle helmsmen. A dinghy sailor with a very nice feel for the boat. ‘Faster, higher, fortare!’ He knows a lot about the stars and maybe that’s why he is sometimes dreaming.

No 7: Magnus (Mange) OIsson, our skipper and motivator and the other member of the Scandinavian coffee club. He is always in a good mood and makes others happy too. The race veteran has played a vital role to have a Scandinavian boat and this crew in the race. He was one of the key people in the selection process and he has done a lot for our team. He is enjoying being with the boys and with the boat, although he is not allowed to do all kinds of maintenance jobs on shore. He likes using Sikaflex, which usually ends up everywhere.

No 8: is me, a rookie in this race, coming from the Olympic racing scene but really enjoying these boats, this team and this race.

No 9: Our second new crewmember on this leg, Magnus Woxén, a race veteran who has blended in very well with the team. He is a skilful, solid trimmer and helmsman with right attitude. He is the other principle helmsman.

No 10: Our boat captain, former farmer Jens Dolmer/DEN, the boat’s heart and soul. He surely is a workhorse who is always checking the systems and making others try to get to his level in their different responsibility areas. A real stacking police and if you are in a ‘shitfight’ you can count on Jens. He fixes anything from almost anything. Big guys need a lot of food so you don’t like to see Jens hungry. I learned that on leg three when we went light on food. He likes to be close to the navdesk so he is now working as a floater and is Aksel's backup, but also as our pitman.

No 11: Gustav Morin/SWE, our media crewmember and the youngest guy onboard. Beside his media duties he helps us making meals and keeping the boat clean and dry. That is much appreciated and he is really a part of our team, not only a media guy documenting what is happening. I have never seen him unhappy and we enjoy his adventures during the stopovers, as he is the only single one in the team.

Cheers

Thomas Johanson/SWE – watch captain

PUMA LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 25.02.09 1052 GMT

Sailing along through the Micronesian Islands of the South Pacific, I got a nasty awakening this morning as I was rolled out of my bunk without warning. Fortunately I landed in the stack below me, but the boat was tipped over at such an angle that if you didn't know what was going on you might think the boat was about to capsize.

We’d been hit by another line squall; they appear to be quite prevalent in this part of the world and seem to have some teeth as well. Once the call has been made that we are about to get hit the crew has to react quickly to make the boat safe - wind speeds in a squall can easily double or increase by 20 knots. I could hear the guys on deck running around as they got the big jib down and put up a smaller sail, then a minute later, the reef starts to go in, I can feel the boat accelerating and then go quiet as the helmsman turns downwind so that the guys can make the manoeuvre safely. The squall has generated a sloppy wave pattern and the boat starts to crash and bump because the waves are disorganised and random. This particular squall was a real beauty and lasted about two hours.

The first indication that you are going to get nailed by a line squall will be a general darkening and thickening of the clouds to weather, therefore if you’re reaching and you see some activity at about 45 degrees off the windward bow, you need to start getting prepared. The leading edge of the squall comes with a pretty high probability of a significant wind-shift. You will observe high black cloud above you and light rain will start to fall, this lasts for about five minutes and is generally followed by a short pause in the rain, which may be accompanied by possible clearing of the clouds. This break will only be for a few minutes before the large drops start to fall from the puffy nimbus clouds that make up the body of the squall.

Once in the squall, the rain will be torrential, and I mean torrential. It's really quite fun. Because the water is so cool and clean it provides a great chance for a shower and generally speaking the on-deck watch has to work around the off watch guys streaming out of the hatch clutching shower gel.

There's a lot of space for interpretation of both line squall theory and on the water observation. Trust me.... everyone has his own theory of line squall theory, and everybody observes the outcome of a squall in their own special way.

Rick Deppe MCM

TELEFÓNICA BLUE LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 0859 GMT

Hi There,

Things got a little tricky for us as, at some point last night, we wandered into what is something of a minefield. I went up on deck last night for what I was expecting to be a fairly mundane four hours of sailing, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

One massive cloud after another had us speeding along at 25 knots in anything from 15 to 30 knots of breeze. There has been no let up either. When day broke and we escaped the third or fourth big cloud we thought that we might be getting a slightly easier time of it, however it has proven not to be the case.

Throughout the whole day we have dodged past cloud after cloud, sometimes getting caught up and other times escaping by merely the skin of our teeth. Each cloud brings driving rain, massive wind-shifts, big gusts and potential calms so there is certainly plenty to keep us on our toes.

Unfortunately right now we are negotiating one of the aforementioned calms and are struggling in 2-3 knots of wind after hours of sailing in the driving rain. Hopefully we will escape the clutches of this beast soon and we will be allowed get on our way, but it certainly looks like the next few hours are going to be a little tricky and the next few scheds will need to be looked at with a positive frame of mind!

With all the rain about today, there has been something of a shower- fest with everyone taking the opportunity to try and clean up a bit. This is certainly a better tactic than applying copious amounts of cologne to mask an already unpleasant smell, but is a risky game all the same! Get caught out covered in soap when the rain stops and your are either forced to wait for the next cloud or resign yourself to rinsing in salt water ending up back where you started...

However, this is all moot really as, despite being beautifully rinsed and cleaned, I have just returned to finish this after escaping the calms I mentioned just before, and, after the mother of all sail changes, I am soaked to the skin and once again caked in salt. Oh well... that’s life I guess!

Until tomorrow,

Simon Fisher - helmsman

GREEN DRAGON LEG FIVE DAY 12 QFB: received 25.02.09 0238 GMT

February 25th - Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my 39th birthday and I have actually had a lucky escape as we should be crossing the date line tomorrow or the next day and had it been today. It could have seen me celebrating my birthday twice in one year – I didn't fancy turning 40 this year.

Sadly there was no tea in bed, no birthday cards and no presents - it would have been a long way for the postie to come. I did have a few surprises though. Firstly I had a conference call with our CEO and my good friend Jamie Boag who was at a function in Boston and I was treated to a full rendition of 'Happy Birthday' on speakerphone from everybody there including the Mayor of Boston.

Next came a bottle of Guinness and a lovely fruit cake smuggled on to the boat by our friends at 'Good Food Ireland'. Good Food Ireland is an organisation that promotes Irish food and cooking all over the world and they have prepared Irish produce for us and many more in most of the stopovers so far. I can still taste the Irish beef given to me as I stepped ashore in Cape Town at the end of leg one. Thanks guys (and girls) you are the stars of the race so far in my books - not just for your fantastic food but even more for the fun you share. You are an excellent advert for Ireland and you put smiles on faces wherever you go.

Birthdays aside, we have had a very good few days. The fleet has opted to follow our easterly route, which has consolidated some very big gains for us. We have taken over 200 miles out of the leaders and are very much back in the hunt. It looks like everyone is shaping up to go east of Fiji, where a large area of no wind awaits the fleet.

Right now the wind is down to seven knots, the lightest the wind has been since leaving the shores of Qingdao. We are using this opportunity to give the boat a full once over and dry our gear out. It won't be long before we are anxious to get going again. The lads are already counting the days and, to be honest, judging by the smell down below I can see why. As it’s my birthday I may help things by treating myself to a fresh water wash down and a clean pair of undies - that is the closest I am going to get to spoiling myself on my birthday this year.

Ian Walker - skipper