| At sea. Volvo Ocean race: “Champagne Sailing” for ABN AMRO ONE |
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| Monday, 10 April 2006 | |
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Camilla Green & Tim Kelly: Since returning to the northern hemisphere ABN AMRO ONE has experienced some of the best sailing conditions of Leg 5 so far enabling Mike Sanderson and his crew to reach speeds of 19 knots, achieve 470 miles in a day and most importantly, stretch their lead over second placed movistar to 38 miles for the first time. After just missing out by two boat lengths to movistar at the scoring gate on Saturday morning, ABN AMRO ONE were able to capitalize on the conditions and become the first boat of the Volvo Ocean Race 2006 to head back into the northern hemisphere. According to Helmsman, Sidney Gavignet the crew is experiencing some of the best sailing to date. “The mile-munching machine is off,” said Gavignet. “Conditions are perfect now, “champagne sailing” as the Kiwis say, a flat sea but with 16 to 20 knots of wind. The boat is running at 100% of its potential, sometimes even more and life onboard is therefore also good. “We were a little concerned about the kids onboard ABN AMRO TWO, because their pace was below normal. They seem to have regained a proper rhythm over the last few hours. Whatever the problem, it’s time they shifted as nobody is going to wait for them!” There was no sign of ABN AMRO TWO shifting however as they were forced to sit out 6th place in lighter conditions. The last position report showed they had lost more distance on the next placed boat (Ericsson) and were now 67 miles off the pace and 167 miles behind their sister boat. Navigator Simon Fisher explained the crew’s frustration, “It seems we are caught in the most viscous of viscous circles. Each sched we lose a few miles as they guys ahead get better pressure, next sched they get the pressure even earlier still as we are further behind and so the story has gone now for as many days as I care to remember. I think in the last 24 hours I have been through the full range of emotions and yet I still don't feel any better. The temptation to shout and throw things at the computer is at times massive but we all know temper tantrums don't do you any good whatsoever! I don't think if you are competitive you ever learn to deal with losing though. I guess that is what keeps you competitive. Sadly the only answer right now is to be patient. “At some stage, hopefully in the not to distant future we should start matching the boats ahead of us and then maybe even start gaining some of the lost miles back. We wait hour by hour for fresher wind and a better angle so we can get the bigger gear on but each grib file seems to put this point further away. So once again patience becomes the name of the game and the code zero and big reachers remain safely packed away on the rail. So, it is back to the waiting game. No doubt in 6 hours time I will be sat nervously in front of this computer to see if our fortunes have at last changed, and if not... well, then we wait some more.” Latest positions: ABN AMRO ONE: Position: 1st ; Lat: 07 10.03N; Long: 45 55.06W; Distance to finish (DTF): 2554 nautical miles ABN AMRO TWO: Position: 6th; Lat: 05 20.02S; Long: 43 44.02W; Distance to finish; (DTF): 2721 nautical miles Next position report: 22.00 GMT www.abnamro.com/team See race pics at Team ABN AMRO Photo Album Click on Last Additions to view most recent pictures. |
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| Last Updated ( Monday, 10 April 2006 ) |
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