Day five and the fleet is bracing for a deterioration in weather conditions with gusts of 50 knots and big seas just around the corner.
The leaders are within 90 miles of the weather waypoint at South Rock Light, added by the Race Office in anticipation of what meteorologist Jennifer Lilly describes as “sustained wind speeds over 40 knots and gusting to 50 knots” in the Luzon Strait.
Add into the mix the warm waters of the Kuoshio Current, which flows northeast against the breeze, and makes for a lumpy, confused sea state, and life on board will be far from idyllic.
The emails from the boats are peppered with anticipation. And in an audio interview with Amanda Blackley, Telefonica Blue skipper Bouwe summed it up best when he said: “We are thinking more about the bad weather coming up – we have one more day in paradise … and then we go to hell.”
For Green Dragon, damnation arrived sooner than expected when Ian Walker’s men broke their forestay this morning. The incident has relegated them to the bottom of the pile as they soldier on under jury rig to Qingdao.
By the 16:00 Position Report, the Dragon was 51 miles behind leader PUMA. Telefonica Blue was maintaining their pursuit of the shoe boat at +4 Distance To Leader (DTL). Ericsson 3 (+32) had climbed to third with Telefonica Black (+34) fourth. They were sizeable gains for Ericsson 4 (+44) which had muscled in on fifth place ahead of Delta Lloyd (+47).
The fleet has finally cleared the lumber yard of the Spratly Islands. Delta Lloyd navigator Frits Koek for one was relieved to have made good their escape. “Sailing through these waters is just not fun,” he reflected. “If you see the drift wood – sometimes the size of a big tree – and realize that nobody will remove it during the night, and considering the area in the chart that explicitly says: “Dangerous Grounds, this is becoming a dangerous occupation.
“Last night, around 20:00 local time and pitch dark, we hit a piece of wood that slammed off the paddle-wheel speed sensor. This caused the whole navigational instruments to go bananas.”
Ericsson 4, languishing at the foot of the leaderboard for the past 24 hours after opting for an easterly routing against the run of play, sniffs opportunity in the oncoming squalls according to bowman Ryan Godfrey.