The left-of-centre policy of Telefonica Black has handed her the balance of power as the fleet nears crunch time on leg four.
In less than 24 hours, there will be thorny issues on the agenda – welfare issues – for both man and boat with the arrival of an ugly front.
By around 0700 GMT tomorrow, the fleet will nose out into the Luzon Strait – a 250-mile body of water which stretches between the northern tip of Luzon Island off the Philippines and the southern edge of Taiwan. Given the forecast, the crossing could be a game breaker.
As a precursor to the gusts of up to 50 knots and six metre seas expected in the Luzon, reports of hatches being battened down are rife.
In an email this morning, PUMA skipper Ken Read revealed that the crew of il mostro had adopted the scout motto of “Be Prepared”.
”We know there is a storm coming and we are 100 per cent ready for it,” Read said. “We are as prepared as we ever could be for this little issue that is coming our way. We will try not to break the boat to take us out of the leg or worse – the race.
”It is a nice time to have seasoned vets on a boat like this who have seen it all before. We have talked through many different scenarios and there wasn't much that we could bring up that someone on the team didn't say – ‘oh yea, when I was on 'so and so' in the 1994 'such and such' race … ‘You get my drift?
’It’s starting to slam a bit harder now’
”Media man Ricky Deppe is crawling around the boat with his video asking everyone ‘how they feel’ with a storm on its way. Well Ricky, we all feel fine and we are looking forward to 48 hours or so from now when the winds back off and we can get back to full time racing.”
Evidence that mother nature has begun to bare her teeth came in an audio chat with Ericsson 4’s Dave Endean. “It’s starting to slam a bit harder now,” he told Guy Swindells
“It’s a practice run for tomorrow when the rumour is 35 knots and six metre waves. I don’t know how much of that we are going to see but we are planning for the worst. Hopefully we can get the boat through it so we keep pushing on afterwards.”
At times like this it’s the helmsmen who earn their corn. In E4’s case that’s Brad Jackson, Stu Bannatyne, Tony Mutter and skipper Torben Grael. Helming in these conditions, adds Endean, is a precise art.
”We’ll reduce sail area and try and control the speed of the boat. If is starts going too fast off these waves that’s when you do all the damage. The rest is up to the helmsman to nurse it over the waves so that when it does land it lands heeled over.
”If it lands upright that’s when you load the structure up too much and the hull feels all the shock loads.”
Telefonica Blue navigator Simon Fisher agrees that good seamanship will be the order of the day. “We need to look after our boat over the next couple of days,” he said.
’Good night from a bouncing Delta Lloyd’
His counterpart Frits Koek reports that a deterioration in sea state and a jump in wind speed has prompted sail changes on board a ”bouncing” Delta Lloyd.
”The winds have picked up some strength and we’re now in some 20 knots NNE’ly breeze for the next day or so. The waves have started to grow. Early in the evening we were already banging against two-three metre waves and had to ease the pressure a bit by changing to the J4 and one reef in the main. Good night from a bouncing Delta Lloyd.”
By the 1600 GMT Position Report, PUMA was the filling in a Telefonica sandwich with Telefonica Black holding a four mile lead over il mostro with sistership Telefonica Blue (+14 miles Distance To Leader) third. The second group comprised Delta Lloyd (+31) with Ericsson 3 (+40) holding off big brother E4 (+42) and an ailing Green Dragon (+46).
Finally, the aforementioned Rick Deppe brought poignancy to the proceedings in a reassuring note home. “Things may go a bit quiet over the next day or two as things are about to get a little rough, so apologies in advance for that,” he wrote.
“One thing I can say for sure is that my Mum and Dad are checking things out daily. Last year before No.1 son (me) signed up for this race, No.2 son was in Iraq with the Royal Engineers. Fortunately he made it back safe just in time for me to head off on this crazy Round the World adventure.
”Imagine my poor parents sitting back in Yorkshire – they just spent a year being bombarded with the news from the middle east - daily mortar attacks and suicide bombers, on and on. And now, following the race daily they will be reading stories of broken boats, injuries and infections, even pirates for God's sake.
”Right now they're probably reading about the big storm that we have to go through between the Philippines and Taiwan. The reality is that it's just another day at the office probably going to be a pretty tough one but just another day all the same. It'll be fine, love you Mum and Dad.”