VOR: PUMA - Making the Most of My Time

Cruise ship 'swallows up' Ericsson 3. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing.

by Rick Deppe

A beautiful morning here on il mostro. Shannon driving the boat and the lads are having one of those "Las Vegas" discussions. Not much change in our circumstances out here; same wind same angle and still bloody hot. On a positive note we seem to have found a little bit of extra speed from somewhere and overnight we managed to pass E3, whose bow light we can see about a half mile behind us to leeward. In the late afternoon yesterday, a huge cruise ship passed between E3 and us - from il mostro it looked as though they were being swallowed up by the Death Star (see picture above)! Fortunately, they popped out the back about two minutes later... no description needed. Some speculation regarding the destination of the cruise ship, possibly Fernando 235 miles away, just like us.


Shannon Falcone driving at sunrise. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing.

Depending on your point of view one of the great things about being out here is that you have a lot of time, and in my case I also have the freedom to choose what to do with that time. If I wanted to I, could stay in bed all day, but of course I couldn’t do that. One fact alone keeps me out of the bunk – it is unimaginably uncomfortable. I mentioned in an earlier blog that I have no fan so most of this leg I will be literally laying there in a pool of my own sweat. The bunks have mesh inside the frame so that air can circulate, but I have to keep the pad on mine because an aluminum bar runs right down the middle of my back. Don’t get me wrong, I'm not complaining and consider myself fortunate to have a dry spot to lie down in.


Rick Deppe squeezes into his bunk. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing.

Getting in and out of the bunk is an exercise in extreme flexibility when the boat is stacked out- there is no way for me to lower the bunk and having only about 10 cm of clearance between me and the person above me means that I cannot roll over, thereby requiring that I do a sort of horizontal limbo/slither to get in and out. My rough calculation is that there are only about 30 more days of racing remaining, I think I'll make it.


Counting down the days, onboard PUMA Ocean Racing, on leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race, from Rio de Janeiro to Boston. Image copyright Rick Deppe/PUMA Ocean Racing/Volvo Ocean Race.

PUMA Ocean Racing
Volvo Ocean Race