The leading boats have hit a high pressure zone as they all battle north to Rio. The low pressure systems and the roaring forties of the Southern Ocean are now a distant memory, but all four boats are caught in this system as they negotiate their way around the Falkland Islands. As a result there isn’t much change on the positions in terms of miles gained or lost in the last 24 hours. Green Dragon are still holding fourth and they are sailing at 100% and chasing hard to try and close the gap on PUMA who lay 100 miles ahead. At present the upwind stretch has kicked in and Green Dragon are pushing north in 25 knots. Whilst the weather options for Green Dragon are limited over the next few days spirits onboard remain high and the race isn’t over until they cross the line, “Finishing this leg will be a great achievement for the whole team but it would be far sweeter if we could get on the podium in Rio,” commented Ian Walker.
Green Dragon’s navigator Wouter talked through his passage around Cape Horn, for him it was the second time around, but he is still no closer to actually seeing it in all of its majesty! “Nope, I didn’t even see a glimpse of it. My second rounding of the Horn, and out of luck again. None of the glamorous pictures of a yacht blasting along the green rocks in bright sunshine for us. On the contrary we were hanging on for dear life in 40 knots of wind in a pitch black night. The waves were so bad we even had to drop the fractional spinnaker and went to the smaller blast reacher. Cold, wet, overcast and stormy is a better description of Cape Horn if you ask me”. In terms of the conditions ahead and a route it Rio, he said, So now it is all good news as we are heading north towards Rio de Janeiro. The weather looks to be a right mess, which suits us very well as it will provide us with some snakes and ladders to try and overtake Puma. This marathon is not over until we cross the finishing line, which is for sure. The 10, 000 miles behind us has been the warm up for the grand finale which is about to start!” Asked whether he would do the trip again and take on Cape Horn he commented, “Absolutely, I have to at least SEE this rock that everybody is raving about, right?”
Read the rest of his update here
Leg Five Day 34: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) DTF 1, 621 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
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
