Telefónica Blue has crossed safely through the scoring gate at Cape Horn to grab two points. This puts her on 46.5 points overall, just half a point behind Ken Read’s second placed PUMA, and still in the hunt.
“Obviously we are relieved to get to Cape Horn, we had a bit of a party onboard and now we can think about getting to Rio and giving the guys in the shore crew time to prepare the boat for the in-port race and restart,” said skipper Bouwe Bekking. “We are really pleased with the way the boat has performed even though we have been jury rigged since we broke the forestay earlier on,” he added.
Continuing to lead the fleet is Magnus Olsson and Ericsson 3. Olsson has managed to position his boat between the chasing pack and the finish in Rio, a position he would like to keep until the finish gun sounds, but the weather is complex and gains and losses are expected in the next two days as the fleet negotiates the patches of high pressure with varying degrees of success.
Although their advantage is currently 50 nm, a gain of five miles in the past 24 hours, it is not a comfortable lead. “We are sailing through an area of high pressure bubbles,” says Ericsson 3 navigator Aksel Magdahl. “My biggest concern is the high we will have to negotiate in two or three days’ time. It can easily be a parking spot,” he said.
“Already tonight we will have to try and get ahead of another light patch developing between the two highs to our north and south. It looks like we might just manage that,” he added.
The team has also had to deal with kelp attaching itself to the keel and rudders, which meant sailing the boat backwards to free it.
In third place, 136 nm behind Ericsson 3, PUMA reports flat seas and light breeze, which has encouraged sound sleeping among the crew. Green Dragon’s Ian Walker, who still has his sights set on a podium finish, also reported enjoying the longest and best sleep he has had in this entire leg.
The top three boats are spread in a line north/south. Puma’s Ken Read says that the spacing of the boats is proving to have just enough room to create its own little weather situation, which can be significantly different from the other boats.
“It’s a kind of yo-yo effect. Sometimes you are going down on the string, but, nearly always you will come back up as well,” Read says. “The object for PUMA is to have more ups than downs,” he added.
Over the last three hours, PUMA has averaged the highest speed of 14 knots, but Telefónica Blue claims the fastest 24-hour run of 387 nm.
Cape Horn Scoring Gate
(boat/date/rounding time/gate points)
Ericsson 3: 17.03.09 1222 GMT: 4 points
Ericsson 4: 17.03.09 1448 GMT: 3.5 points
PUMA: 17.03.09 2046 GMT: 3 points
Green Dragon: 18.03.09 0215 GMT 2.5 points
Telefónica Blue: 19.03.09 1339 GMT 2 points
Leg Five Day 34: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) DTF 1621 nm
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +50
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +136
Green Dragon IRL/CHI (Ian Walker/GBR) +236
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +636