Instrumentation showing slow progress on board PUMA Ocean Racing on leg 5 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Qingdao to Rio de Janeiro. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race.
by Kenny Read (skipper)
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That is what the boat speed reads right now - 80 miles from the finish, 40 odd miles behind E4.
To put this in perspective, we made six miles toward the finish in the last three hour position reports and gained on E4!!!
It is pretty light air out here with no end in sight.
Here a run down on what we have got going.
1. We have been told by our shore team that we get whatever food we want when we arrive. We have chosen the best steaks that money can buy, veggies, fruit, rum, coke and beer. Pretty basic but I think we are in a pretty basic mood.
2. The crew continues to ease and trim by the millimeter to get every inch out of this vessel. I’m very proud of this group. No outward signs of frustration and very professional.
3. Ricky and Bob have done a great job with the food. Essentially, we have had nearly full meals all the way up until now. We brought half a cabin worth of food on this leg!!! More bags than we could store. Also, we brought enough food for the maximum projected amount of days that this leg would take, with provisions on how we could stretch it out if necessary. Mother Nature hasn't cooperated. It is what it is. Like everything else in this race, we just deal with it. No complaints from this group.
4. Referring back to #3...we have one more meal left for tonight and a bag of peanuts for the morning. Besides that, we have unlimited amounts of water. We will be quite hungry at some point if the breeze doesn't fill in. Again, we will deal with it.
Everything else is peachy. We dug up another tube of sunscreen - a big bonus. We are trading iPods and watching movies on off watches - essentially trying to kill the hours as best we can when not on deck trying to urge the yacht to move. When in doubt stay out of the sun. We are simply a group of pros continuing to do their jobs in what most would consider a pretty unfortunate situation.
Oh yea, we are in a boat race as well. Back to work.
PUMA Ocean Racing
Volvo Ocean Race
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