“The waves are even more confused than 48 hours ago, so we take it very easy. Full survival mode again.”
By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, Telefonica Blue’s lead over it’s pursuers – Ericsson 3 and 4 – had shrunk. Having taken their foot off the gas momentarily and ”with two men down”, Telefonica Blue had surrendered 16 miles to the Nordics (+40 miles Distance To Leader) in the past six hours.
Telefonica Blue is 35 nautical miles off Cape Sandiao on the north-eastern tip of Taiwan. Ericsson 4, tracking the sister ship, has conceded ground and was +72 – a loss of 10 miles over the same period. The Ericsson twins are approaching the Zuna Shoals, two thirds of the way up the eastern side of Taiwan, where the Philippine Sea meets the East China Sea.
Further back – in the casualty department – PUMA (broken boom) was at +82, Delta Lloyd (shredded mainsail, broken wheel), was +191 having cut the corner at the southern tip of Taiwan, once safely through the Luzon Strait. “A little bit of manoeuvring through some shallows and along some islands, and we are in open waters,” reported navigator Frits Koek.
Green Dragon (broken forestay, structural damage to the bow – twice) was limping along in last place at +231.
Meanwhile, Telefonica Black (crack in hull deck joint) made it to intensive care in Subic Bay off the Philippines last night. We await the prognosis on rehabilitation.
Despite the mauling of the past few days, the mood on Green Dragon is on the rise according to skipper Ian Walker. In an audio interview this morning he said that the repairs to their bow section were holding and thoughts of retirement had been shelved for the time being.
“We have damaged the bow slightly since we repaired it. We’ve actually given it quite a bit of slamming and its holding firm so we are increasingly encouraged about our situation,” he said. “In fact in the last hour we have dropped the trysail and put up the main again.
“We are making good progress – but we need to because there’s lot’s more strong head winds due over the next four days. Make no mistake it’s going to be very tough. Our mainsail is also delaminating and falling apart so we are having to be very careful with that.
‘We are absolutely determined to get to Qingdao’
“But we are absolutely determined to get to Qingdao. We don’t want to retire, we want to finish this leg – every member of this crew – and we don’t care how long it takes us. Obviously we want to get there quickly to give the shore crew enough time for repairs.
“We don’t want to give up. We have stopped talking about contingency plans be it going to Hong Kong or Taiwan and right now all the talk is about how we get to Qingdao in the fastest and safest possible way. But we still have some tough times ahead.”
