Twenty four hours into Leg 5 and the party has finally kicked off – the north-east monsoon is shrieking down the Yellow Sea and everyone has hit the dance floor. But it took a while for the superstar DJ (i.e. the weather front) to arrive and the eager, fresh-faced debutanetes turned up at the invited hour – Ericsson 4, PUMA and Green Dragon – have had to sit and fidget for half a day before they could get going.
But that worked just fine for the fashionably late aboard Ericsson 3, able to strut their stuff pretty much as soon as they turned up, and now happily edging closer to our group of debutantes with their eyes on the prize. And even Telefonica Blue – playing the role of the horribly late, drunken gate-crasher – has little to complain about. The breeze had filled in and the party was in full swing when they arrived.
At 10:00 ZULU, the fleet were all hammering south-east in a strong north-northeasterly. At the front was Torbeb Grael and Ericsson 4, holding a ten mile lead from Ken Read’s PUMA. There’s been a lot of puff, but themagic Dragon has still been struggling a little, dropping back to 15 miles behind Read and his team. The Dragon was already threatened by Ericsson 3, who have brought the wind south with them and are just ten miles behind. Even Telefonica Blue is only another 165 miles back – not bad for a boat that started 19 hours late.
More From Onboard Ericsson 3 here