The South China Sea became an obstacle course on day three with shoals and debris ever-present on the passage to Qingdao. Dodging and weaving is de rigueur for the navigators.
This leg was billed as a step into the unknown and Telefonica Blue’s Simon Fisher underlined the fact when he spoke of the booby traps confronting the fleet in an email this afternoon.
”It is a little stressful as we had to weave our way through some nasty shoals,” he said. “I think it probably made it worse that I had taken the time to read the Admiralty Sailing Directions which described them as both ‘badly charted’ and ‘possibly in error by many miles’.
“Giving lots of distance away to take the easy way round wasn’t really an option after fighting for every inch, so as a result it was a nervous few minutes as we passed through the worst of it watching the depth sounder drop to just a few metres several times over.
“Having escaped unscathed, hopefully, our more northerly path through as compared to our rivals, has set us in good stead.”
Ericsson 3 navigator Aksel Magdahl was struggling to see the wood for the trees. “At the moment we are making a slalom turn every now and then to avoid huge logs floating in the water. Apparently they float down the rivers in Sabah, Borneo, and some of them end up out here.”
Meanwhile, for Green Dragon, yet more obstacles. “Right now the wind is down and we are preparing to thread our way through a thousand reefs,” reported skipper Ian Walker. “This is definitely the calm before the impending storm.”
For now conditions are benign as the fleet continues upwind in 10-12 knots and moderate seas. They are lurking in a transition zone, eyeing an anticipated wind shift and an option for tacking onto starboard.
A glance at our 2D race viewer, shows the pack separated by 21 nautical miles from first to last and less than 10 miles across a north/south divide.
By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, PUMA led the way with Ericsson 4, to the south, second at +2 miles Distance To Leader and Telefonica Blue (+4) in third.
In close company were Telefonica Black and Ericsson 3 (tied on +16), Green Dragon (+17), the furthest north, and Delta Lloyd (+21).
Topical as ever on Inauguration Day, PUMA’s, Rick Deppe delivered his own state of the nation address from the South China Sea.
