Thursday 27 November 2008 12:10
Team Russia – Wouter Verbraak (Navigator)
Tough day at the office? Yes, absolutely! The wind is all over the place, the quickscat satellite wind pictures are not available, and our competition in the west that should be in less breeze is gaining on us, big time! The Doldrums are making themselves felt with huge squall systems followed by dead calms. Think the Atlantic doldrums are a challenge? Try these for a laugh.
For most of the last four hours, the wind has been below 5 knots. When we have 7 knots of breeze, everybody sighs a breath of relieve as we feel the boat slowly accelerates to eight knots, then we are getting places. ….The models are not looking very promising at all either, as it has the Doldrums light wind area do a super nova over the next days. ETA India? No idea at the moment. One thing is for sure it is not looking like the 30 November like it did four days ago!
So how do we deal with this all? Well, we are lucky to have a team that is determined and super focused. Trimming, driving and calling the wind is rotated at least every hour to keep everybody sharp. Jokes are shared around as well, to take the edge of it all. It is these stages of the race, where keeping positive and looking for that next little patch of wind, the next cloud line and the next squall count. You can bet everybody is having a rather challenging time out here, so make the most of it and you will have a good chance to do well.
One of the big things to get us home are the squalls. There are plenty to deal with, but not all of them are friendly. In our world, we deal with either ‘suckers’ or ‘dumpers’. The first ones generally really do badly and we try to stay away from them, where as the second version are like a God send.
The sucking clouds are typically dark black clouds that have no rain underneath them. Most frequent in the afternoon, when the clouds are building up, like a vacuum cleaner, they suck up all the air around them. Sometimes this means that there is a bit more wind along the flanks and back of them, but in general, they just swallow you and make your sails go flap-flap for the next hour.
Dumping clouds are a whole different story all together. We love them! Typically, these clouds come with a fair bit of rain and wind, so we can get a good boost through the light winds. Don’t get caught underneath them though, as the wind kills all the wind….
So, especially in the morning and evening, we are active cloud-chasers. Every cloud gets sized up and gets points. One for a really bad sucking cloud, 10 for the top dog 25-knot gust clouds. Find one of them to ride for an hour and you are looking good on the next sched.
This morning we had a few good ones up in the sevens and eights. This afternoon, however, things are much too quiet with very little to propel us to Cochin. So looking forward to the evening when winds are slightly stronger and the eight and nines come out. We've got to get out of this place!
Received 12:10