Leg 8 continues to prove tricky as the fleet weaves its way through the English Channel, with tides, shipping and a peninsular or two to battle with along the way. Green Dragon remains at the front just 2 miles to the stern of Telefonica Black, with 16 miles now splitting the fleet from front to back. Last night the Dragon decided to head further south into the bigger breeze, but this also meant they would sail a longer course. Elsewhere the rest of the fleet, barring Telefonica Black who had also committed to the southerly route, stayed north and were soon forced to gybe onto starboard and join the others to the south where they were enjoying the more constant conditions and making gains on the pack behind them.
The next obstacle would be the tide which was going against them at over 5 knots as they approached the Cherbourg Peninsula. This was a particularly tricky area to sail past due to the water from the Baie de Seine being squeezed past on an ebb tide, which only accelerated the westerly flow along its northern shore, particularly around the Cap de la Hague. Navigator Ian Moore took the decision to head closer to the shore, with Delta Lloyd and Ericsson 3 in pursuit, whilst the others headed offshore. But it was a shift in the wind from the west to the south-west that threw a spanner in the works for the fleet. The tide started to build against them, and at one point the whole fleet was taking on one of the most notorious pieces of water in the Channel - Alderney, the Casquets and the Cherbourg Peninsula. At this time of year they were battling a raging foul tide, creating a nightmare situation for the navigator’s onboard.
A long night ensued as they all made their way through to the other side. Ian Moore’s local knowledge came good as the Dragon crept around the south of Alderney, where they then had to defend their lead at Cap de la Hague. The rest of the fleet were left struggling to deal with sailing in a 6 -7 knot breeze against a 5 – 6 knot tide! M By morning there appeared a light at the end of the tunnel and as a 15 knot south-westerly wind provided welcome relief to the fleet, but it didn’t last long and again it was apparent that once again the better breeze lay offshore.
But life isn’t about to get any easier for everyone, Volvo’s Race expert Mark Chisnell filled us in, “conditions will remain light as they continue to shift to the east (and eventually the north-east), as the fleet sail into the influence of a high pressure system centred off the entrance to the Baltic. The tide will turn against them and whether they like it or not, pretty soon the most leeward boats are going to have to tack to avoid the Dover exclusion zone. That will enable Green Dragon and Telefonica Black to bank their gains, and they should continue to hold the lead as the fleet tack up the French coast. It looks like they will be tackling the Dover Strait upwind in a foul tide. I’d take naked in a maths exam over that one, too - all to play for, there’s a very long way to go!”
Update from onboard
I am only 60 miles from my house in Warsash right now which is making me homesick! 9 months away from home so far so I guess I can last another 3 weeks until the end of the race. It has been a very good 24 hours for the Dragon as we are leading the fleet down the Channel. We continued to keep as far south as we could with a series of gybes throughout yesterday. Every time we went south we got more wind and gained on those around us. The problem was that it was pushing us towards the Channel Islands where the strongest tides in the Channel exist and where we were due to arrive at the worst possible time. It was because of this that the fleet stayed North of Alderney in less foul current but the wind was too good for us to give up and we stayed south and took on the ‘Alderney Race’. Telefonica Black had been covering us all day but we managed to use the island to split away from them. Despite fighting 6 knots of current we managed to get to the French coast and we gybed down the rocks to sneak around with a few miles of advantage. It was a highlight of the race rock hopping at night in fierce current trying to steal every boat length we could on the fleet. Since then it has not gone quite as well as we paid a small price for being too close to the Cherbourg peninsula after Cap de la Hague. It was a difficult dilemma - stay close to the land to stay in less current but run the risk by doing so of losing your wind under the land. The important thing is we are out and clear now, the wind has filled in and we are neck and neck with Telefonica Black with most of the fleet 10 miles behind. Onboard life is easy as we are sailing in flat water, but sleep is problematic with so much decision making and manoeuvring. I was up 12 hours straight all last night so today I intend to catch up on sleep in preparation for more fun and games in the Dover Straits tonight.
Skipper Ian Walker
Leg Eight Day 3: 1600 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
1. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DTF 667 nm
2. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) + 2 nm
3. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) + 6 nm
4. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) + 9 nm
5. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) + 9 nm
6. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) + 10 nm
7. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) + 16 nm
