The decision to gamble on an easterly approach to the Doldrums was worthy of a scene from Ocean’s 13. And as reported in today’s Ten Zulu, it was Ian Walker’s men who emerged from the cashier’s queue with the biggest payout.
The Dragon has gained 140 miles Distance To Leader (DTL) on Ericsson 4 since 13:00 GMT on Saturday.
Best supporting role must surely go to the Doldrums. For it is the Doldrums, not for the first time in this race, which has brought about compression in the fleet and put a whole new complexion on the leaderboard.
But what of the others? Well Ericsson 3 is worthy of a special mention in the comeback category. Conceding seven hours to their rivals at the start of this leg, Magnus Olsson’s crew are now within four miles of second-placed PUMA, who in turn are 24 miles adrift of Ericsson 4.
Green Dragon was +129 and Telefonica Blue, which gave the pack a 19-hour head start out of Qingdao, was +134.
In an email entitled “Rolling The Dice” (the gambling habit is catching), Ericsson 3’s Media Crew Member Gustav Morin talked of the 50-mile gain on the shoe boat in the past 24 hours and of the roulette wheel that is the Doldrums.
For Sweden’s Morin, it is still a “högrisk spel” (high risk game) out there. Conditions overhead are clouding the situation, he adds.
“We have reached the Doldrums and the game of rolling dice can begin,” he said. “Even though the convergence zone is not as big as it has been in the last crossings (Leg 1 and 2), it is still impossible to predict what’s going to happen with the wind over the next few days.
On Telefonica Blue, Bouwe Bekking reported that a message of volcanic proportions landed in the inbox of their navigation warning system. It read: “North Pacific, Nanpo shoto. Discoloured water with submarine volcanic activities observed. In vicinity of 24-17.1N 141-29.0E”.
“Yes, indeed a volcanic ‘eruption’ very close where we crossed this position a couple of days ago,” Bekking said. “Good it didn’t happen when we were there, as not sure how we would have reacted… and rather don’t want to know the consequences.