PUMA Ocean Racing, skippered by Ken Read (USA) off Rotterdam. Image copyright Ronald Koelink - foto-nautiek.nl
by Rick Deppe
Bit of a surreal experience this morning as we passed through the Rotterdam Sausage in fourth place. Here's the drill - cruising along nicely headed towards Marstrand, we had to round a channel mark, drop the chute and come onto a reach towards the land where we passed through a sort of gate, before turning around a Volvo buoy and reaching back to the gate where we re-hoisted, heading once again towards Texel where we will make the turn towards Scandinavia, unless we have to head out to sea to find stronger breeze.
Some fancy sailing through the night by Ericsson 4 seems to have put them into the lead at the gate, however, all boats are in sight and we are breathing down the necks of Telefónica Black and the Green Dragon in 4th place.
After the upwind light airs sailing in smooth seas of yesterday we now find ourselves hard running in 25 to 30 knots of wind. One problem we do have is that we blew the A4 running chute shortly after the re-hoist. Justin (Justin Ferris) is assessing the damage while Capey (Andrew Cape) tries to figure out the weather and if it's worth fixing in the time remaining to cover the final 500 miles to the finish.
On a positive note we have a nice little buffer on Telefónica Blue... fingers crossed.
Volvo Ocean Race
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