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Photo: Hamish Hooper/Camper ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race |
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Photo: Hamish Hooper/Camper ETNZ/Volvo Ocean Race |
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Photo: Yann Riou/Groupama Sailing Team/Volvo Ocean Race |
“To finish first, you must finish. That’s what my father always said,” Harmer recounted, adding that it’s hard to see the waves at night. “We have gone to a safer rig tonight. There’s no moon, so we have a rig on that is a lot easier to drive at night. It’s a little bit slower but I would think the rest of the fleet is in the same mode. We are all in the same game and have the same concerns”.
Onboard it is very wet, bumpy and noisy and the heavy spray pummelling the boat is becoming colder. Bailing is a constant occupation although Nicholson says bailing is like chasing cats around. “The water is just running from one end to the other and it is hard to catch.”
As the boats lurch and pitch even the smallest of tasks become onerous and communicating with the outside world, using freezing fingers on a damp keyboard is one of them. “They haven’t done rollercoaster rides where you have to operate a computer before,” Nicholson said.
Cooking and eating is another task readily avoided and the crews are choosing to climb straight into their damp bunks and sleep for as long as possible rather than eat. Not surprisingly, fatigue is starting to set in.
“You can see it in the guys’ faces,” says CAMPER helmsman Rob Salthouse.
At 1000 UTC today CAMPER led the fleet with Groupama in second PUMA Ocean Racing powered by BERG (Ken Read/USA) in third and Telefónica (Iker Martínez/ESP) in third. Average speeds for the past three hours have ranged between 19 – 22 knots for the main pack.
Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing (Ian Walker/GBR) in fifth place are at latitude 42 degrees south and have taken a dive down towards the leading four, making around 19 knots, but still with a 476 nm deficit.
Meanwhile the repair to the hull of Sanya (Mike Sanderson/NZL) has been holding up well according to the Sanya skipper. “We have made a piece of carbon plate and used a lot of the fastenings that were there to hold the rudder bearing together. We have a fairly nice surface to bolt to,” Sanderson said after turning back towards New Zealand to repair the damage sustained on Thursday when their starboard rudder sheared off.
The weather for the return trip is not ideal, being predominantly upwind. “We are not able to sail the boat at full speed, so we have a bit of a slow trip on our hands, about five days to do 1000 miles. We are aiming to try to limp the boat to New Zealand at about 75 per cent of what it is capable of,” Sanderson said.
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Volvo Ocean Race Media
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