VOR: Green Dragon - The Final 24 Hours

by Lucy Harwood

Green Dragon is now within the final 24 hours of Leg 6. Ericsson 4 is holding a slim 5 mile lead over their sister ship Ericsson 3 and the battle for third continues between Telefonica Blue and PUMA. Elsewhere the battle between the Dragon and Telefonica Black continues with 22 miles separating the two boats. As the fleet made their way past the whale exclusion zone (this is a zone the boats are prohibited from entering due to a speed restriction over the whale breeding zone), the front fleet slowed and the final miles have been slow and tedious.

Green Dragon, Delta Lloyd and Telefonica Black continue to sail on at over 10 knots, albeit in heavy fog conditions which has made visibility challenging. It is likely that they will also hit the lighter winds later this evening as they make the final approach into Boston. The current ETA for Green Dragon is tomorrow morning local time (GMT -5). Once on land the crew will be able to tuck into the famous Good Food Ireland “Green Dragon Buttie”, it is a combination of organic Irish fillet beef, fresh potatoes wedges topped with sea salt, West Cork Country relish and freshly baked bread, as Ian Walker stated today, “now that sounds better than freeze dried sweet and sour doesn’t it!”

Leg Six Day 16: 1900 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)

1. Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) DTF 10 nm
2. Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) + 5 nm
3. Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) + 10 nm
4. PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) + 33
5. Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermúdez/ESP) + 101 nm
6. Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) + 115 nm
7. Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) + 138 nm

8. Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

Green Dragon Racing
Volvo Ocean Race