Sun, 13 Nov 2005 17:30:00 UTC
After the excitements of the night, the day seemed a little quieter as movistar and Pirates headed for Portugal
Throughout the day the kids on board ABM AMRO TWO kept the hammer down, seemingly unaffected by the problems that were hitting some of the other boats. They racked up an amazing 504 miles in 24 hours, an average of 21 knots, a new Volvo Ocean Race record beating illbruck’s previous Volvo record of 484 miles set in the last race, and just 26 miles short of movistar’s world record of 530 nautical miles.
At 1600GMT, the order is ABN AMRO TWO in the lead by ten miles from ABN AMRO ONE, Brasil 1 is four more miles adrift, and Ericsson a further 13 miles back. At the moment Sunergy and Friends is 237 miles behind the leader. Spot speeds were between 16 and 20 knots for the leaders, with the three front runners all racking up 24 hour runs averaging over 20 knots.
Just behind the leader the senior ABN AMRO boat was coping with some small problems – see below – and further back Sunergy and Friends – the name they now go under – were coping with trying to fix their gooseneck and reeve a new halyard. They fixed the gooseneck once, but it gave up the ghost later, so they have now decided to divert to Madiera to do a proper job before heading on their way again.
REPORT FROM ERICSSON
Ericsson and Brasil 1 kept on plugging on in some very tough conditions, but at least they seem to stay happy. This is Neal MacDonald, “We held on to the lead until we got out of the bay. From then on it went bad - we never quite seemed get settled with any sail combination. This quickly gave away many miles to the fleet.
“As darkness came so did the wind. As predicted this meant a hard night for all. Soaked through, little sleep and lots of physical effort -a tough start to our race. Combine that with a number of issues loosing miles to the leaders, you could well imagine a few grumpy ERT boys aboard today- far from it, they toughed it out with a smile. Also judging from today’s position reports other boats sound like they may also have had problems- a hard night for all. Tomorrow is another day!”
ADRIENNE'S DIARY
And this is Adrienne Cahalan, Brasil 1’s navigator, “Within hours of the start we were in 20-30 knots of wind, harnesses on, all weight aft as the boat started to take off at speeds of up to 30 knots down steep waves. Last night we had a few squalls of up to 40 knots and the sea was very rough, six to seven metres, so sleeping and eating was almost impossible.
“These windy but fast conditions continue today, but under a blue sky. We have been working down below to keep bailing out the water from both leaky parts as well as the water brought down by people in their wet weather gear.
“We are constantly aware of the wild nature of the boats and are sailing ours accordingly, I am sure the fleet is a little spread out because of this and when the wind decreases over the next few days we will see a new race develop in the more moderate winds.”
MIKE'S BIG ONE
Last night we wondered if ABN AMRO ONE had had a problem or were backing off. This email from skipper Mike Sanderson defines the situation and describes in no uncertain terms the experience of life aboard a Volvo Open 70, “We were middle of the pack as we left Vigo Harbor, but as the breeze built and we ended up with around 20 to 25 knots broad reaching. By the second position report we had worked “Black Betty” into the lead, it all seemed to be going nice and smoothly. Then we got hit by a big puff, 37, 38 knots of wind; the boat took off, fully under control, and then there was a loud bang and we did the most massive wipe out.
“Tony (Mutter) and Jan (Dekker) got swept along the cockpit with so much force that they took out the leeward steering wheel, steering pedestal and the safety frame that is around the wheel…..
“As if that wasn’t bad enough, we just couldn’t seem to get the bow down so that we could roll up the gennaker. We tried to roll it with the boat still on its side, but the wind speed was just too great. It was then that we realized that our problems were in fact bigger then we thought. We had broken the tiller arm on the port rudder, this is the link between the rudder stock and the steering system, so basically we had lost steerage from the rudder that was in the water. Eventually we managed to roll up the sail and the boat came back downwind miraculously, just using the tip of the windward rudder. Once downwind and with the windward rudder firmly in the water we were able to re-group...
“Our first job was to get the emergency rudder in place so that we could steer the boat, then set about fixing the tiller arm. After much head scratching we did it with long bits of threaded rod and good old spectra lashing… now we are back up to 90 per cent speed and our plan is to try and hang on to the pack as well as possible until we can get on the other gybe and have another go at the repair with more time so that we can push on starboard tack at 100 per cent.
“Just got called up half way through writing this with a 46 knot squall!!! Am just now back in the nav station, four hours later after getting the reacher down, getting it packed and stacked, getting the new sail up and then frantically bailing out the back of the boat, where we have a hole in the deck where the steering pedestal has ripped off... This is seriously hardcore...
"Just heard about Movistar and the Pirates, I hope they stay safe first and foremost.
"Okay that’s about it from me, the young fellas are doing a fantastic job at the front of the fleet in ABN AMRO TWO. For now, more than happy to leave them there and just keep this baby in one piece and under 30 knots..."
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