Leg 3

[203 0]

I see Abu Dhabi Is facing the wrong way now.. whats happened?

 

Camper seem to be turning aswell ..What the f?$# is happening with these guys?

[Guest]

I see Abu Dhabi Is facing the wrong way now.. whats happened?

 

Camper seem to be turning aswell ..What the f?$# is happening with these guys?

 

They may have run into no wind. Look at the speeds that there doing. Both down to 2 kts

[203 0]

you would of thought they could atleast point into the right direction eh ...

[Guest]

you would of thought they could atleast point into the right direction eh ...

 

unless there trying to get out of the hole that they just sailed into. Ive tried to do it before when the winds died and you can see a new breeze line approaching in the distance from another direction. Just an idea

[203 0]

So have I .. once.. and it failed terribly.. I was hoping for some closer racing going into this straight.. maybe i was wrong

[Guest]

So have I .. once.. and it failed terribly..

 

same with me. Its hard to get a boat to move when theres no wind around

 

 

I was hoping for some closer racing going into this straight.. maybe i was wrong

 

I was expecting that someone was going to come out of this leg with a massive lead and that one or more teams was going to get burnt. Its still early days yet, but its not looking good for Camper while Telefonica are slowly extending their lead.

[203 0]

So have I .. once.. and it failed terribly..

 

same with me. Its hard to get a boat to move when theres no wind around.

 

Theres always that Thing that gets you out of the marina...

[benny14 6]

I'd say the tracker has no idea which way they're facing, but will show them pointing in the direction they're moving... i.e. they're moving backwards due to the tide being faster than the wind, so the tracker shows them pointing that way... The boat will actually be pointing in the right direction...

[Guest]

On Radiolive this evening they had an interview with the Medic on board Camper via Sat Phone.

 

Was brillant, they spoke for about 20min.

 

Anyway they were doing 7knots at the time, bugger all wind, they had even anchored earlier to stop drifting back with the tide

 

Might explain the backward position of the boat.

[Guest]

On Radiolive this evening they had an interview with the Medic on board Camper via Sat Phone.

 

Was brillant, they spoke for about 20min.

 

Anyway they were doing 7knots at the time, bugger all wind, they had even anchored earlier to stop drifting back with the tide

 

Might explain the backward position of the boat.

 

 

Thanks for the info. I have managed to find the radio link, but I haven't been able to download it or record it. If you would like to listen to the interview with tony Rae then you can follow the link bellow. They dont talk much about the current race, buts its a interesting listen. The Audio clip is from the 29/1 and its from 7:15pm to 7:30pm and a little bot of the 7:30pm to 7:45pm. Let me know if you have trouble finding it and I will alter my directions.

 

http://www.radiolive.co.nz/Audio.aspx

[Guest]

Video time

 

 

 

[Guest]

From groupama

 

Day 8 - The channel for three

 

 

 

In less than 24 hours, the hierarchy has radically changed as the fleet surged into the narrowing Straits of Malacca. Three options were open to the crews and the most spectacular comebacks were made by Groupama 4, now in the top three, and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing, which has caught up with Camper again! However, the situation might well change again in the Melaka gulley…

 

 

 

In the two days since the fleet slipped into the narrow passageway separating Malaysia and Sumatra, the wind has vanished into thin air and its random behaviour is playing on everyone's nerves! It switches from less than five knots to around fifteen without any indication whatsoever and the breeze is even more complicated to apprehend once the sun and moon meet… In this stagnation of wind, you need a certain amount of confidence, a zest of anticipation and a pinch of luck. Indeed, putting together a plan of campaign when the wind fields draw up furrows which are as incalculable as the ultimate value of Pi, is a tremendous feat: the only solution is to constantly adapt to what is essentially a random fluctuation, so as to extract from it a trajectory with contours as broken as on an abstract painting… You only have to observe the wakes of the six VO-70s over recent hours to understand that the ‘strategic truth' is amazingly obscure! In this corridor which narrows from 200 miles to less than 20, the six crews are more scattered now than they were during the five days, which marked their progress from the Maldives to Indonesia…

 

A sticky situation in Melaka

 

Early this Sunday afternoon (European time), night had just fallen offshore of Kuala Lumpur and there is likely to be a great deal of jockeying for position in a breeze which, according to the grib files, is set to be inexistent… Just twenty miles separate the city of Malacca (Malaysia) and the island of Rupat (Sumatra), and the tidal range measures over a metre, which causes hefty currents in this narrow passage. Indeed, it may well be that everything's decided in this Melaka channel for this third leg: if one of the five crews manages to make good their escape over these next fifty or so fateful miles (Sanya having dropped too far back already), it's very likely that they'll have an open road to China. In fact, once this zone is devoured, the coastal landforms will no longer disturb the monsoon air flow and the long upwind climb won't have as many surprises to offer as this nerve centre in the gulley…

 

24 hours ago, the Spanish had snatched control of the fleet thanks to a slight northerly separation, whilst Groupama 4 had made up ground on Camper. However, it was off George Town that everything took on a different tone. Indeed, late on Saturday night (local time), whilst Telefonica was amassing a lead of around thirty miles, Franck Cammas and his men got ahead of the Americans to reposition themselves at the centre of the strait when the New Zealanders opted for a route along the Malaysian coast, tailed by Abu Dhabi. Hoping to benefit from the thermal effects there, the latter two crews instead got stuck off the paddy fields of Bagan Datoh for nearly six hours, while Puma and Groupama 4 homed in on the leader at an average speed of over twelve knots. As night fell, the three boats formed a united triumvirate off the capital of Malaysia, with a lead of over thirty miles on the Camper-Abu Dhabi duo! Meantime, the Chinese boat opted for a route which was the exact opposite of that, sailing along the coast of Sumatra with a deficit of over 130 miles…

 

Everyone looks the same in the dark…

 

Midway through the Indonesian night (1400 UTC), the Spanish had a lead of just one mile over Groupama 4, which was two miles ahead of Puma. However, the speeds had dropped considerably to around five knots, whilst some twenty miles astern, Abu Dhabi had the edge on Camper, both of which had stalled a great deal too. In the pitch black, the moon only offering the crews a tiny crescent of light, it's likely to be a very lively night aboard Groupama 4. The reasons for this aren't simply related to the task of keeping watch for shipping, fishermen, floating objects and things caught around the appendages (plastic, nets, tree trunks etc.), but also keeping an eye out for their two rivals breathing down their necks and the clouds with their improbable behaviour. With this light and very fluky breeze, there will be a steady series of manœuvres too of course. This is especially true given that the squalls and local effects will be hard to make out. The main aim for Franck Cammas and his men is, above all, not to fall off the pace on entering the South China Sea in 36 hours' time… For now, the French boat has performed that particular number to perfection!

 

 

From Puma

 

First, I have to apologize. I just re-read the last blog I wrote and it was the most boring blog in history, so sorry about that. Hopefully I didn't force too many of you to turn off your TV sets. As for today’s, I will try harder. And, I have to tell you about a revelation I just had – I just changed my clothes.

 

Wait, wait! Don't go to the next blog just yet. Hear me out.

 

As you all know by now it is pretty well documented that we leave the dock with quite a limited amount of personal gear. This leg is probably even more to that point, mainly because we all anticipated such a hot leg. Sure enough, we didn't need much. The leg has not disappointed.

 

Heat below and above decks has left us all pretty manky. Ok, that is the understatement of the century. We stink. But you know what, we all stink together. The biggest mistake you can make is really clean up and put on deodorant and get all pretty because then you smell how bad everyone else smells and how bad below is, and that is the worst. So if we all stink together then life is much more bearable.

 

I'm off my point. My point is that with such limited clothing options, actually changing clothes and the timing of changes is a really big deal. Sure, I have rinsed my sweat soaked shirt out a dozen times over the last few days and pretty much had myself convinced that it still wasn't that bad. Until I really studied the gray shirt with the big cat on the front and noticed that it wasn't really grey anymore. It was a beige-ish gray brown color and stiff as a board. Essentially, if I put it down long enough it could probably walk away. Really bad. And, it turns out quite uncomfortable, although you don't really realize that until you put on a clean one. The open pores in these breathable shirts weren't exactly open anymore. A serious problem in modern day active wear.

 

The shorts and under shorts were also standing on their own. Literally. I had to physically bend the shorts when I took them off to sleep to keep them from standing on their own two legs. Great shorts, I might add. A new design sailing shorts that we did with PUMA for this race and they are fantastic. Very little smell after such a long time and they also have a waterproof butt on them. Anyway, the shorts were gross.

 

So I made the call. This evening was the time to make the big move. Today was the day to change my clothes. Wholesale change I decided. Why do one and not the other? It would be like having a party on top and a funeral on the bottom. Didn't make sense.

 

And what a move this was. Eureka! An amazing experience. A bit of a fresh water rinse with about two hands full of fresh water and voilà! New clothes are a bit baggier than when I used them last, but what a feeling. Like a layer of slime taken away. Even without a shower, it was still like I had stepped into a totally new world. Slime free, for the most part. Not so stiff, looking good I might add. The clothing choice was an easy one. Another gray PUMA breathable tee and a pair of new PUMA board shorts, which are fantastic by the way (small plug).

 

So, today is a day that I will remember for a long time. You know, it’s the little things in life. The word is spreading around the boat that a clothing change can change your life and I think most are buying into it. Which is a good thing.

 

One thing is for sure. No matter how bad it gets on board, we are living in a bed of spring flowers compared to the small Indonesian fishing boat we just passed to leeward of. A mix of month-old curry, fish, and body odor is not pretty, even on the high seas. Made us all feel a bit better about our situation.

 

- Kenny

[Guest]

Its been an interesting last 24 hours in this race and its still throwing curve balls at the boats. Firstly Camper and Abu Dhabi had to throw their anchors overboard so they didnt drift backwards Then they smoked it down the straights to catch 20nm on the leaders as they hit a a massive light patch. Camper and Abu Dhabi couldnt then find a way around the same light patch that the leaders fell into and are stuck now doing the same speed as the leaders and slowly gaining on them.

 

Sanya however have suffered greatly and they have fallen into the same windless hole 24 hours after Camper and Abu Dhabi while Puma have annoyed some fisherman by getting a net wrap around themselves. More info on that below.

 

The Malacca Strait nightmare is almost over with just 70 nautical miles standing between leading pair Team Telefónica and Groupama sailing team and the open ocean.

 

The Spanish and French teams were inseparable overnight as the leading pack of three was whittled down to two, with PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG snagged by a net and left trailing by more than 10 nm in third.

 

CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand and Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing have closed the gap with the leaders by five nm to 25 nm overnight, while Team Sanya have dropped further off the pace 150 nm in the wake.

 

The teams averaged between 170 and more than 200 nm distance overnight and are likely to break free into the South China Sea within the next 12 hours.

 

PUMA Media Crew Member Amory Ross said the team estimated they had lost about 10 nm on the leading pair while they attempted to break free from the fishing net.

 

But worse still, Ross said, was the fact that PUMA’s Mar Mostro was left bobbing breezeless when they missed a wind shift while attending to their snag.

 

“While untangling the tangle we sat idle as the dwindling night winds vanished, and we now find ourselves struggling in a windless transition-zone while the leaders sail away in the old breeze and the trailers catch up in the new," he said.

 

“It is upsetting. We are now closer to CAMPER and Abu Dhabi than we are the other two."

 

The crew on board CAMPER remained buoyed this morning by the thought that the open ocean was not far away. But there were still plenty of hurdles to overcome, reported MCM Hamish Hooper.

 

“The last big obstacle course to pass through before then is the shipping lanes of the Port of Singapore,’’ he said. “That will be more like dodgem cars rather than pinball."

 

At 0700 UTC on Monday there was about 1150 nm distance between the leaders and the finish line at Sanya, China.

 

The teams are expecting a tough couple of days beating in short, sharp seas and are likely to stick close to the Vietnam coast as they trek north.

 

The yachts are expected to finish Leg 3 Stage 2 around February 5-6.

[Guest]

VOLVO OCEAN RACE FLEET ENCOUNTERS MULTITUDE OF DANGERS IN THE MALACCA STRAIT

 

Strait of Malacca – One week after the restart of Leg 3 of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-12 in Male, Maldives, the race’s six-boat fleet has made its way south through the Malacca Strait, while confronting a multitude of natural and man-made dangers along this particular stretch of waterway.

 

The race officially entered the 500-mile long (800km) Strait of Malacca on Friday as Team Telefónica rounded Pulau We island narrowly ahead of the trailing fleet. With Telefónica, PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG and Groupama sailing team just 300 metres apart at times over the weekend as they headed south, the three lead boats were keeping a close eye on one another.

 

But as much as the teams focused on match racing each other, the race leaders and three other boats – CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand, Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and Team Sanya – were equally focused on the unique challenges posed by the Malacca Strait.

 

This stretch of water between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra is the major shipping channel between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, carrying roughly 25% of the world’s traded goods.

 

Three days into the Strait, the Volvo Ocean Race fleet has contended with massive commercial ships, unlit fishing vessels, underwater fishing nets and general ocean debris. The teams are on constant watch, with team navigators even asking commercial ships to alter course on occasion.

 

The Strait is also notorious for unpredictable weather with shifting winds and powerful currents common in the area. CAMPER with Emirates Team New Zealand dropped anchor at one point over the weekend, due to lack of wind and strong currents.

 

As the race heads south towards Singapore Island on Monday, the racing boats will have to further contend with the congested Phillips Channel, which narrows to a width of just 1.5 miles (2.8km) before the fleet head north for their final push across the South China Sea and the Leg 3 finish into Sanya, China.

 

Team Telefónica currently lead the overall standings with 71 points to CAMPER’s 64. Groupama is in third place with 51 points. The race made a stop in Singapore during the 2008-09 edition.

[smithy09 50]

The leaders are meant to be passing where we are anchored right now, but I can't see a thing.. Dark out there.Maybe Camper and Abu Dhabi tommorrow morning??

[Guest]

The leaders are meant to be passing where we are anchored right now, but I can't see a thing.. Dark out there.Maybe Camper and Abu Dhabi tommorrow morning??

 

Did you see any of them?

 

heres some videos

 

 

[Guest]

A great blog from hamish.

 

Hamish Hooper blogs from onboard CAMPER….

 

Well I guess it’s plain to see that our shoreline gamble didn’t pay. Not that it’s any consolation, but the conditions have been just as we predicted, what wasn’t predicted was the good relatively steady and constant breeze the 3 leading boats got.

 

It’s a hard pill to swallow but the good thing is everybody onboard seems to have taken their medicine well and are just getting back on with the job on hand.

 

There is still a long way to go, so no need to get negative on things yet. Still over a thousand miles, and we will be using every single one of them to fight to get back to the front of the fleet.

 

We had another relatively exciting night last night as we were crawling along at turtles pace. We ended up pretty much right in the middle of a massive ship parking lot off Kuala Lumpur – and it seemed to be rush hour.

 

At one stage when Nico was trying to work out what direction one approaching ship was doing, he asked what colour the navigation light that could be seen was. Chuny took a glance behind the sail and said, “Both, red and green- this is not good.”

 

We had to alter course quite a lot, came down so we past port to port safely then just as we had done that another horn blared at us from the other direction several miles off.

 

There was no real danger at all, but it felt a wee bit like we were on the inside of a giant steel pinball machine for a while, only we were the pinball and a carbon fibre one at that!

 

By the time we actually past the initial ship it was stopped and anchored and had decided to take a better look at us so all of a sudden we were lit up by their massive flood lights, turning us into an impromptu billboard in the darkness. We felt a bit like a prisoner getting spotted escaping from jail.

 

As we passed below them they yelled down at us if we would like some cold beer… ummm- what do you think??

 

Andy McLean has been saying repeatedly for days now that he can’t wait to get to China. I keep on asking him what it is exactly he is looking forward to the most, the tropical beaches of Sanya, the interesting people, the culture, or the #46 chicken fried rice- he can never decide but can’t wait to use the chopsticks.

 

This morning we are once again have our own race within a race with Abu Dhabi who are just a couple of hundred metres off our stern.

 

Will Oxley has been busy as always- he just came below and told me we sailed right by an island, which is not on the charts.

 

Speaking of charts I noticed yesterday there was an area on the chart right by where we were sailing which said in big red bold letters ‘Explosives’, I wonder if the Indonesians are fishing again?

 

We now have about 150 miles to go until we are in open water again. I think everyone is looking forward to that. The last big obstacle course to pass through before then is the shipping lanes of the Port of Singapore. That will be more like dodgems rather than pinball!

 

That is if we get there, the breeze has just died again. The anchor and our ‘Anchor Master’ Trae are on standby…

 

Here’s a fact for you:

The Port of Singapore is the worlds busiest port in terms of shipping tonnage- around 1.15 billion gross tonnes handled in a year.

 

Again that’s a figure too big to comprehend, but might give some idea of the amount of shipping we need to get through in the next day or so.

 

——————————————————————————————————

 

GOLDEN QUOTE: “Give me icebergs, two layers of thermals and the roaring 40’s any day. This is torturous.”

ROB SALTHOUSE

[Guest]

At 1605 UTC today Iker Martínez’s men on Telefónica led the six-boat Volvo fleet round the Horsburgh Lighthouse and out into the South China Sea for the final 1000 nautical miles (nm) to Sanya in China. Groupama 4 (Franck Cammas/FRA) was 3.4 nm behind and, in third, 10.8 nm further back, was PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA).

 

Tonight at 2200 UTC, the order remained unchanged. Telefónica leads Groupama 4 by 4.7 nm and PUMA’s Mar Mostro (Ken Read/USA) is a further 3.6 nm astern. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) and CAMPER with Team New Zealand (Chris Nicholson/AUS) remain glued together 20 nm further back and just 2.4 nm apart, while sixth-placed Team Sanya brings up the rear, 165 nm adrift and has yet to enter the Singapore Strait.

 

“We seem to be on the downward spiral and that’s in conditions we know we’re quite fast in,” said skipper of Sanya and former race winner Mike Sanderson/NZL. “From that side of it, it’s been really disappointing. But you know, you can be as fast you like in these conditions, but if guys have two or three knots more, they’re going to sail away,” he said. “We’d love an opportunity to catch up, but right now I’d settle for not losing any more miles.”

 

As the fleet spilled out into the South China Sea, speeds immediately began to improve, as the leading trio set off east on a straightforward port tack beat at 13 knots. The teams must first leave an archipelago of islands off the coast of Malaysia to port before they can commence the 450 nm beat to the finish in Sanya.

 

Although Telefónica is well set up for the type of upwind sailing the crews will face in the next week and the team is eagerly anticipating conditions which will suit their boat, watch leader Neal McDonald says there is actually very little difference in performance among the top three upwind.

 

After the tactical stress of the Malacca and Singapore Straits, coupled with high density commercial shipping, which kept the crews awake for 20 hours at a time, now is the time to settle back in to a watch system rhythm and try to catch up on much needed sleep.

[Guest]

Its been another interesting last several hours in the volvo if your a groupama or telefonica fan. Camper and Abu Dhabi were catching the front two, but then the leaders took off and havnt looked back. They tacked to go north and have extended over 20nm on 4th and 5th and are looking comfortable.

[Guest]

Video time