And now – the end is near – save for a shift to downwind mode for the sailing equivalent of a 100-metre dash to the finishing tape in Qingdao. Where’s Usain Bolt when you most need him?
By the 16:00 GMT Position Report, Telefonica Blue, the perennial leader, had 157 miles remaining and the spectre of PUMA and Ericsson 4 in the wing mirrors.
Bouwe Bekking’s men held a 29-mile advantage over PUMA while the daylight between Ken Read’s black cat and E4 was three miles.
Over the past six hours the gaps had stabilised somewhat as they find themselves on a level playing field in terms of wind conditions. For now.
Bekking’s lead is still precarious – and he knows it. He admitted this morning that he was throwing the odd glance over his shoulder. “We haven't lost much against the two boats behind us, but still not feeling very comfortable,” he said.
"The models show hardly any wind for us at the finish, where as the boats behind still have breeze. Thirty miles ahead sounds a lot, but this can get eaten up in no time when one is parking up.
"Remember the last leg, where E4 had a healthy lead, then they made a wrong choice and ended up without wind, and we appeared like sharks with no mercy?
"So we have a long cold night ahead. We get an update every three hours to see where the other two boats are, so at least we can try to cover them as good as possible. It is so simple, stay in between the finish and your opponents, piece of cake, but I am sure we will have a bit on.”
A “bit on” is Bekking-speak for the perils of the Yellow Sea – the home straight. Ahead lie flotillas of commercial shipping vessels and fishing nets in their ”thousands”, according to Ericsson 4 Media Crew Member Guy Salter.
'Anyone who has seen Jaws will be able to picture the scene’
"The last five hours have been eventful onboard E4,” We were (and probably will be again) sailing through thousands of fishing nets about 20+miles off the Chinese coast around the delta of the Yangtze River,” he said.
"The huge lines of buoyed traps consist of two larger buoys, about the size of 50-litre drums, separated about five metres apart by a piece of bamboo, which seem to be anchored.
"From the bamboo, is the net, which seems to trail in the tide, often with a smaller marker on the end of the net, about 10-metres down tide. Or, at least, that’s what the majority of them look like. In amongst the thousands of markers are the fishermen working them on small boats and minding their own business. Add a few Volvo 70s and the excitement starts.
"We went to leeward of the first one we could not avoid and just when we thought we passed with no trouble the two larger buoys began to chase the boat. Anyone who has seen the film Jaws will be able to picture the scene. The boat slowed a few knots and the line snapped and the buoys stopped chasing us, we all looked around in relief.”
E4 were not so fortunate in another encounter with a fishing trap a few hours later when part of the apparatus wrapped around the keel fin. Freeing it proved costly, and the solution will not endear them to the local fishing fraternity.
“No matter what we tried, we could not get rid of it, we tried heeling and flossing but to no avail,” he said. With PUMA just behind us we had two choices – leave the rope on the keel and ignore the vibration and slowly watch PUMA run us down or furl the Code Zero and do a back down (reverse the yacht and let the rope and net wash off the fins) which would hand second to PUMA, but leave us clean and ready to fight.” The latter option won the day.
"We backed down and off floated 10 metres of line, half a green net and the small buoy. PUMA passed us by about three-boat lengths and we deployed the sails again and gave chase.”
They subsequently hunted the shoe boat down, edged ahead of Ken Read’s men, and were passed again. That is likely to be the theme to the final curtain call.
'We will be about five-boat lengths apart for some time’
"We are on the sprint finish now with very little sleep to be had for either boat,” he added. “We are so close that we can see the reflective camber stripes on their boat’s sails.
"We will be about five-boat lengths apart for some time yet – give or take the odd net.”
Completing the fleet on the water, in fourth place and in racing mode for the first time since leaving the Luzon Strait is the ailing Green Dragon. After three days of hellish conditions, the team has been cut some slack. According to skipper Ian Walker, the wind is down to below 20 knots and the waves kind enough for them to sail at close to their optimum. The 300-mile deficit to the leading pack has long since been academic.
“We are now going faster towards Qingdao than at any time in the leg. We feel like we have escaped the worst, but we must not rest on our laurels,” he said.
Meanwhile, the latest leg four casualty, Delta Lloyd has suspended racing and joined Ericsson 3 in the repair shop at the Taiwanese port of Keelung City. The extent of the damage to both yachts is under investigation.
In the words of Paul Simon (Graceland), this 2,500-mile fourth-leg passage from Singapore to Qingdao has been filled with “incidents and accidents”.
And for those on the race track, the finish can’t come soon enough. The race Data Centre has Telefonica Blue reaching Qingdao at approximately 1100 GMT tomorrow. For the battle-scarred Green Dragon, just getting there is reward enough.