De senaste 24 timmarna harvarit extremt spännande för deltagarna i Volvo Ocean Race. I den andra delseglingen, på väg mot indiska Cochin, återstår nu cirka 2000 Nm. Lejonparten av delsträckan är avverkad och efter några spännande dagar kan det nu bli lugnare segling. Flera av båtarna seglar inom synhåll av varandra.
.jpg)
Tidigt i morse hade Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) Green Dragon (Ian Walker/GBR) på ena sidan och PUMA (Ken Read/USA) på den andra.
Den stora torkan har nu drabbat deltagarna.Allt det som blev blött och iskallt i södra Ishavets snabba segling kan nu torkas upp och sådant som har gått sönder ombord kan repareras.
– Runt om hela båten hänger det saker och kläder som vi försöker torka upp innan raet mot etappmålet tar vid. Då kommer vi att seglame mot babord, säger Simon Fisher, navigatör på Telefónica Blue.
Ställningen var så här mitt på lördagen:
Leg Two Day Eight: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 2239 nm
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) +3
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) +28
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +34
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +40
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) +79
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) +88
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) +104
Länk: www.volvooceanrace.org
ERICSSON 4 LEG TWO DAY 8 QFB: received 22.11.08 1003 GMT
The pace of life has slowed dramatically over the last 24hrs on Ericsson 4. We gybed early this morning as we approached the start of the wind transition area, which will ultimately get us into the SE trades and on our way.
It’s been time for drying out and a repair to one of the helmsman’s foot chocks that broke a couple of days ago. Dave Endean/NZL and his faithful side kick Phil ‘ Blood’ Jameson/NZL set about it with drills and grinders and we are now waiting for the epoxy to kick before reinstalling it.
It was weird to see Blood wearing 2 gloves (during the repair) for a change as he has been getting called ‘Michael Jackson’ onboard due to his recent habit of wearing one glove – the reason? – because of some nasty splits he had developed on his hand due to the constant damp conditions. The deep splits resembled small open mouths at the base of his fingers and looked pretty painful, but this didn’t stop the joking about. The small tears took on a new meaning to the recent street saying ‘Speak to the hand as the face ain’t listening’ as Ryan thought that Blood’s hand could talk back and if you asked the hand a question it would actually answer back – albeit in Ryan’s high pitched Monty Python style woman’s voice.
Unfortunately for Ryan, but lucky for Blood, the splits are healing nicely – so we only have the Michael Jackson references and no matter how many times any of us do any high pitched ‘hee hee’s’, ask for a ‘moon walk’ or say ‘chamone’ (in true Jackson style) Blood refuses to put on a ‘self professed messiah – misfit’ show for us, which is a shame as I can just see Blood trying to moon walk in all his gear including his blue gardening glove.
On a more serious note, Dave Endean/NZL threw our serving spoon overboard last night – although he can’t really be blamed, as it was I who didn’t take it out of the pot before asking him to empty the left over food in the ocean. (Tried thinking of a good spoonerism to put in that statement – but couldn’t see one!)
We have a constant high-pitched wail coming from the rudders and it is slowly driving us all insane (I think testament to that is above!) – so in some way losing the spoon was a good move as it is one less weapon to be used onboard when one of us finally does snap due to the aural torture.
Guy Salter – MCM
