Ericsson 3 chases Ericsson 4 towards Stockholm. Image copyright Oskar Kihlborg/Ericsson Racing Team.
by Guy Salter
Not long after my last update, things went downhill.
The breeze became very shifty and we positioned ourselves to the east of Puma and Ericsson 3, and when the shift finally came in, we were very quickly placed back in third - and by quite a margin.
Right now, we can see Puma leading with Ericsson 3 chasing hard but with little opportunity or room to run them down, it is looking like we will have to settle for third. We have been closing gauge on them and been making small gains on bearing - but with just under 70 miles to go it maybe a little too late. The wind isn’t meant to get lighter than 14kts and we are in the max predicted for the afternoon right now (18kts) -- but as you get closer to land, funny things can happen with the wind.
So although its looking less likely for Ericsson 4 to lead into its birthplace, a third place result would still be momentous as it would seal our victory in the 2008 - 2009 Volvo Ocean Race - what we all came here to do.
For some, it will be are first win, but for others it will not. Dave and Tony have already won once before on ABN AMRO Brad will have his 3rd victory - the others on ABN and on NZ Endeavour Stu also will have a 3rd victory - but his will have been in 3 different classes - the maxi class on NZ Endeavour, the Volvo 60 on Illbruck and on here in the Volvo 70. So some great stats for the pundits out there.
Volvo Ocean Race
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