Heads down during a peeling onboard Telefonica Blue, on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race. Image copyright Gabriele Olivo/Telefonica Blue/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Tom Addis (navigator)
Just another day reaching really, but we are starting to get into the leg a bit more now. Ericsson 4 and Puma are still stretching, but we are starting to reel in the Dragon and occasionally Ericsson 3 so hopefully we'll have some friends to play with soon.
Slowly coming into better breeze so we may be able to stop the bleeding soon, but we still aren't seeing any major passing lanes - perhaps a bit of a compression in a few days, but nothing much more exciting than that at this stage. Just have to keep chipping away - day five of a long leg like this is no time to be taking big risks on the routing.
Me, personally, I'm really looking forward to having some shifts and clouds to pick once we start getting south. There's not so much value that I can add in these reaching conditions where options are much more limited. In the last sail change I managed to give myself a small cut on my head on the back of the daggerboard, ever since then I've felt heaps better about this leg - so that’s what I needed - a swift hit to the head to get me into the swing of things!!!
Jono (Jonathan Swain/RSA) has just made the change from boots to shoes. He's always the last one into boots and the first one out but I think others will follow soon. It’s still very wet outside, but it’s getting warmer and the wet isn't going to stop anytime soon knowing these boats, so the call will probably be made by most soon to get out of the heavy gear.
Back to reaching on port tack.
Volvo Ocean Race
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