The leading boats continue on the long road north, they have passed the Falkland Islands and are now in a line as they tackle a band of high pressure. Positions over the last 24 hours have remained fairly consistent, Green Dragon is just 80 miles behind third placed PUMA, but they are still looking for an opportunity to strike if the fleet slows once again. This compression as they head into Rio is a distinct possibility Race Forecaster Jennifer Lily highlighted a high pressure zone that will hit the fleet just before the finish, “the wind speeds will decrease and the fleet is likely to bunch up, as everyone is forced to sail upwind, through the light air on the back side of the second high”. You can read the full forecast here
The final road to Rio will be a challenging one and strategy will be key and the Dragon will be looking for an opportunity to grab a podium spot, Volvo’s Race expert Mark Chisnell commented, “it’s got the potential for murder on the road to Rio, it appears that there is no way through this ridge, compressing the fleet for a restart with about 600 miles (or one Sydney-to-Hobart) to go”.
Talking through their route north so far skipper Ian Walker commented, “We were quite keen on the easterly route, I think if we had been able to get outside Staten Island off Cape Horn then we probably would have gone outside of the Falklands. But we had to drop a spinnaker in a lot of wind off Cape Horn and we ended up getting sucked up close to the land and it would have cost us a lot of miles to get back round Statten Island and out to the east. Having gone through the Le Maire straits it lines you up to the west. In trying to get to the west of the Falkalands the breeze is headed and we have had to actually tacked to get up around the Falklands. I have to say it is quite an incredible morning we are surrounded by all these islands with clouds popping off the top of them”. Listen to the audio in full here
Update from onboard:
“Before my grandfather passed away he gave my mother some handwritten letters written by her grandfather when he was shipwrecked on the Falkland Islands as a boy probably around 100 years ago. I keep copies of these letters and from time to time I read about how he had to swim ashore as the ship went down close to shore. Well this morning at first light we were having to tack to pass around the Northern edge of the Falklands and I found myself dodging the unmarked reefs. Every mile we had to sail on starboard tack to clear the island was a mile lost to the opposition as we needed to head east.
Wouter and I checked the chart and found a very tenuous passage inside some islands and through some reefs that would cut 10 miles off our course. Wouter was very confident in the accuracy of the charts (’the British Navy would have surveyed every inch of these islands’) and after consulting with Damian and Neal we decided to take it on. I have to admit the thought of explaining how a second member of the family had become shipwrecked on the Falklands had crossed my mind but with some short tacks and some weaving we safely found our way through. Well done Wouter - I never doubted you! The Falkland Islands look to be a wild and inhospitable place with drizzle, strong winds and grey skies (and this is summer here) but there is a wild attraction to the place, not unlike the West Coast of Scotland.
On the race course still we lose miles to the opposition as they sail in a more lifted breeze ahead of us but I am confident our time will come if we can keep some pressure on. As I write this blog the breeze is finally starting to lift and we should see our speeds rise. Speed now is crucial to get around the High Pressure before it spreads across our path and forces us further off course. Onboard conditions slowly improve and everyone is catching up on sleep. It won’t be too long now before the first pair of shorts and T-shirts come out”. - Skipper Ian Walker.
Leg Five Day 35: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) DTF 1, 207 nm
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +87
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +193
Green Dragon IRL/CHI (Ian Walker/GBR) +272
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +738
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS
