Seven teams in Kochi, waiting for the arrival of the eighth - Team Russia

The last three days, I was spending time at the Race Village and today, I chose to sit back home to file a couple of Volvo related stories.

The day before - December 1st noon was interesting when I waited for the arrival of Ericsson 3. The only yacht I have witnessed reaching Kochi. Ericsson 4 reached Kochi during the early hours of November 30th, Telefonica Blue by late evening on November 30th and Telefonica Black, Puma, Delta Lyold and Green Dragon by late evening on December 1st. Team Russia is yet battling their way to Kochi. Hopefully, they should make it tonight or tomorrow morning. With just one team still out in the sea, I was curious to know they were taking things. As I logged on to Volvo Ocean Race website, I found the following release - an interesting one from Team Russia:

'A defiant Mark Covell, the media crew member on board, says spirits remain high and the team is looking forward to the finish:

"We are on the emerald highway home and nothing is going to stop us from enjoying our last few days at sea. Even the rain that is falling now will not break our spirit," he wrote. "We have been catapulted forward by huge waves of the Southern Ocean and stopped dead in our tracks by Indian fishing nets on a stop-start of a leg that still has yet to stop...We hold our heads up high and congratulate the winners."

The team is certainly maintaining its sense of humor, calling in its StealthPlay overnight only to cancel it after a couple of position reports. The team can expect a warm welcome for its efforts when it arrives in Cochin.'

That says it - let us welcome, the eighth team – Team Russia to Kochi.

Volvo Ocean Race crew welcomes the warm weather

Racing around the world, the crew members of the Volvo Ocean Race have the chance to experience various cultures, climatic conditions and tons of experiences; only the team can share their good and not-so-good moments with us.

In the leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race, the crew now has a reason to cheer! Thanks to the warm weather.

They have been talking about clothing and climatic conditions since the last few days. They were wet and still sailing - part of what they have to experience during their sailing. Ian Walker, Skipper, Green Dragon, says, "It is amazing that only three days ago the clothing call was thermals, boots, gloves, crash helmets and double fleece sleeping bags and now we are happily in shorts, UV tops, shoes, sunhats and sun cream." He observes, 'The water temperature has more than doubled and so too has the air.'

It was so for Delta Lloyd too. Ryan Houston - watch captain says in his report, "Our first warm and sunny day of Leg 2. It was a great day for drying out our clothes, and cleaning out the boat. The wind and waves were calm and I think that we will all sleep well on our off watches today."

We've done several sail changes to keep up with a rapidly changing wind direction. Over the course of the day, the wind shifted 180 degrees around to the east. We are now sailing with our Fractional Zero headsail again. This sail has seen a lot of hours on leg 2. We love this sail. It's fantastically versatile. We are looking forward to the trade winds and some warm weather.

Team Russia too talks about the weather in their entry." Everyone on board really enjoyed yesterday’s warmer and drier weather after being cold and wet for almost a week. Everything went on deck to dry out; less moisture is less weight, which will help, in the light stuff ahead," Andreas Hanakamp - skipper.

The fleet is now looking to the trade winds and warm weather.

Ericsson 4, the first team to pass the scoring gate at Mauritius.

The term scoring gate, sounds exciting, as it was something the sailors were looking forward to, during the leg two. And they would be doing this again and again till the end of the race. I was equally excited to know the first team to pass the scoring gate.

This happened yesterday when Ericsson 4, skippered by Torben Grael, was the first boat to pass the Mauritius scoring gate at longitudinal 58 degrees east on the second leg of the Volvo Ocean Race 2008-09.

(Photo : Ericsson 4 on November 20th, 2008)

The team passed the line at 03:45 GMT and collected four points. The second team to cross the line was Ericsson 3 at 06:51 and gained 3.5 points.

The press release from Volvo Ocean Race further states, "Green Dragon, on the ropes for the latter part of this leg after breaking their boom, clinched the final podium place at 08:40. Team Russia (09:36) was fourth, Bouwe Bekking’s blue boat (11:40) won the battle of the Telefonica twins, while PUMA was piped for sixth by Telefonica Black (12:25) – by just nine minutes. Delta Lloyd rounded out the order at 13:21."

Bouwe Bekking, Skipper, Telefonica Blue says, "We are still not the quickest in the heavy running conditions, but we could this time control the damage and we are only 60 miles behind first place instead of 600 like in the first leg, after a similar amount of days in the same conditions."

Ian Walker,Skipper, Green Dragon, in his report says, "We hope to start the repair when conditions improve and when the temperature rises a bit for the glue and resin we have onboard to cure. I am not wildly optimistic, but I think the lads are looking forward to the challenge. I just have to stop them cutting the boat up in the process!"

So, what could the fleet expect in the days to come? According to Race Meteorologist, Jennifer Lilly, as the fleet heads north-east over the 24-48 hours "they will be looking forward to a few days of trade wind sailing."

The last few days have been tiring for the sailors. As Andreas Hanakamp, Skipper, Team Russia points out, " Everybody is glad we pointed the bow north as this promises warmer and, finally, drier weather. Being constantly wet and cold is tiring, I must admit. Already the northwest wind we are sailing in feels less chilly than the southwesterly we had for the last few days."

The fleet is heading to India with less than 3,000-nautical miles to cruise to reach Kochi.

Leg Two Day 5 Report (Part One)

GREEN DRAGON inspite of three knockdowns is still heading towards the scoring gate. They also have a leaking daggerboard case. Inspite of these, Ian Walker says, they are focusing on sailing fast to the scoring gate than worrying about fixing the broken boom.

ERICSSON 4 damaged a headsail last day, which one of the crew member repaired.

For PUMA, when they had their first break to the longitudinal frames in the bow, two days back, they ended up spending 7 hours and around 56 miles to fix the issue. Faced with a second break to the longitudinal frame, Ken Read says it might take a little longer (probably as long as 24 hours) to fix.

Currently, TEAM RUSSIA, TELEFÓNICA BLUE, ERICSSON 3, TELEFÓNICA BLACK and DELTA LLOYD seem to sailing smoothly, compared to the mishaps the rest of the three teams have faced in the past couple of days.