Det blev en extremt tuff start av Leg 5 i Volvo Ocean Race. Abu Dhabi fick gå tillbaka till Auckland för reparationer och någon av besättningsmännen beskriver det första dygnet som dagen efter en rejäl utekväll. En rejäl storm har därmed satt nivån för de kommande 6 500 Nm mot Brasilien. En delsträcka där Telefonica fortfarande ligger i ledningen knappt före Camper.
Här är den senaste pressreleasen från tävlingsledningen:
There is no fooling Stu Bannatyne, five-time race veteran and co-skipper of second placed CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS), when he described the opening night of Leg 5 from Auckland to Itajaí in Brazil.
“Without a shadow of a doubt that was the hardest opening night of a Volvo leg I have ever done,” he said.
According to CAMPER’s media crew member (MCM) Hamish Hooper, Bannatyne “stumbled below for the first time after hours on deck, eyes bloodshot, his voice hoarse with exhaustion, looking like he had gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson.”
“After his two hours off watch sleep, he didn’t look much better, but was raring to get back on deck,” Hooper wrote in his latest report from the boat.
The fleet, led by Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) is now 342 nautical miles (nm) north of the Chatham Islands.
Storm force winds have battered the fleet to such an extent that Ian Walker’s Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing were forced to shelter in the lee of the Hauraki Gulf before resuming racing this morning at 0725 UTC.
The Emirati team left the Auckland dock at 2300 UTC yesterday after successfully repairing their forward bulkhead, looking for a break in the weather to catch the fleet now over 600 nm down the track.
“Sadly, we have the exact opposite. We have the meteorological equivalent of a kick in the guts,” reported the skipper this morning as local weather stations reported 50 knot average winds and gusts in the low sixties.
“To set off when we are already a day behind the fleet and put ourselves out of the race would be foolish, yet to heave to and wait is the most frustrating thing on earth,” Walker said of a decision made to shelter from the worst of the weather.
As the storm passed over the fleet Franck Cammas’ Groupama 4 broke the swivel for their J4 headsail, causing many lost miles while the crew regained control of the flogging sail and dragged it below. The French team continue to press on, but according to MCM Yann Riou, “without passion or enthusiasm.”
Sea-sickness has again reared its ugly head as the already exhausted crews push on towards the Southern Ocean.
“I feel like I have been on an all-night drinking binge with George Best,” reported a dejected Hamish Hooper. “Crook as. The banging, crashing, wild conditions have brought a few of us down. Life now consists of short spurts of action before racing back to the bunk to get horizontal again before the sickness takes too much of a hold again. It’s not that much fun.”
At 1000 UTC, Telefónica led CAMPER by 12.8 nm. Groupama, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) and Team Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL) were all within 12 nm with SANYA 39.5 nm off the lead.
To ensure the boats are kept clear of the risk of ice on Leg 5 race control are using satellite imaging to monitor fleet’s likely path and, when necessary, adjust the position of the waypoints which define the ice exclusion zone.
Overnight satellite images revealed possible ‘targets’ outside the exclusion zone and accordingly the exclusion zone was shifted a couple of degrees north. This changed the distance to finish calculation for the fleet but did not affect the standings.
Här är den senaste bloggen från Team Abu Dhabis skeppare, Ian Walker:
Team Blog – Ian Walker – 19th March 2012
Thanks to a fantastic effort by our shore team we were able to leave the Viaduct with everything fixed four hours ahead of schedule. We can’t thank you all enough guys and girls for your work – a great team effort.
All we needed then was a break from the weather to get us back in the race – the other boats are only 200 miles away after all. Sadly we have exactly the opposite – we have the meteorological equivalent of a kick in the guts. Right now we are trapped in the windy section of the tropical low with storm force winds between us and the lighter winds to the East.
We need to exit the Colville Channel where the winds notoriously funnel along the Coromandel Range but the weather stations are reporting 50 knot average winds and gusts in the low 60s. This is more than enough wind to put our boat, sails and people in serious danger.
We are stuck in a real dilemma – do we take on the storm force winds when we have little to gain by doing so or shall we hold on and wait for the winds to abate thereby losing more miles and time to our competitors. To set off when we are already a day behind the fleet and risk putting ourselves out of the race would be foolish and yet to wait is the most frustrating thing on earth. We are trying to keep this entire leg in context and manage the risk appropriately.
We have decided to hold for a few hours in the lee of the islands of the Hauraki Gulf and monitor the weather stations as this tropical low is a very active and fast changing phenomenon. Hopefully we can resume racing and get on our way as soon as possible.
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