| At Sea. Volvo Ocean Race: movistar could still beat ABN AMRO One to the Baltimore finishing line |
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| Sunday, 16 April 2006 | |
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Event media: As ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) and movistar (Bouwe Bekking) prepare to enter the final stage of leg five of the Volvo Ocean Race from Rio de Janeiro to Baltimore, USA, the weather is ensuring that the final 135 miles up the Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore’s Inner Harbour will be a fight to the bitter end. Assistant race meteorologist, Jennifer Lilly explains: “The trip up the Chesapeake is shaping up to be relatively slow and especially challenging – at least for the leaders. Present forecasts are painting very light winds, possibly from the north. If this plays out as forecast, the leaders could be sailing nearly dead up wind, with plenty of tacks as the bay narrows going north towards the finish. In addition, the local tidal currents of the bay will play into this hugely. Combine that with the challenges of heavy shipping, shallow sand bars, fish traps and crab pots, you have got a navigator’s nightmare.” The forecast conditions are not ideal for leading yacht, ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson), but the light breeze could very well suit movistar (Bouwe Bekking), who has been hard on her heels for the last week. Just one mistake from ABN AMRO ONE is all that is needed for movistar to make her move and retake the lead. ABN AMRO ONE is currently 134 nautical miles from the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. “It’s pretty tough being in the lead,” says Mike Sanderson, ”because you sail into the new calm patches first, and movistar is coming roaring up behind us. We are working very hard to try and be the first in Baltimore. We still have a little bit of something to pay back movistar from Wellington and it would be nice to hold them off to the finish, even if it is light airs.” “Everything is maximum intensity at the moment to hold these guys off,” Sanderson continues. “They [movistar] are going to be very tough to beat as the conditions change and it is going to become much more their game. The lead is not that big, especially if we are talking about parking up, which it looks like we are. As soon as the weather starts playing games, it is beyond our forecasting, it is beyond our tactics and a good chunk of it is down to luck. It seems to be a bit rough to be rolling the dice after 5000 nautical miles for the top position and it would be a shame to have led for such a big part of the leg only to lose it in the last bit again.” Bouwe Bekking and crew on the chasing movistar are confident. “We are 180 miles from the entrance to the Chesapeake. We look like we are pretty comfortable against the guys behind us, and we are only 35 miles behind ABN AMRO ONE. We know from how we sailed into Wellington, when they [ABN AMRO ONE] had quite a comfortable lead, that we can do it, so I think they are more nervous than us and we are looking forward to the tricky conditions in the bay to see if we can reel them in,” Bekking said. The change in forecast now indicates that the first boat could cross the line as early as tomorrow evening 2130 BST, 2230 GMT or 1630 local time in Baltimore. Pirates of the Caribbean (Paul Cayard), looking safe for the third place on the podium is expected to arrive 24 hours after the leader. The battle for fourth place is currently being won by Ericsson (John Kostecki) who is now 12 miles ahead of Brasil 1 (Torben Grael). “We have a good race going with the Brazilians at the moment,” writes Ericsson’s navigator, Steve Hayles. “You can feel the energy levels onboard rising as we attack each sail change with even more ferocity than the one before. You couldn’t sail quite like this for two whole weeks, but for two days everyone will give everything they have in the final push to the finish line.” Andre Fonseca from Brasil 1 says that last night was a tough night of sailing. “We had been sailing close to Ericsson for quite a while, but they found the wind sooner than us and disappeared over the horizon...... again! The ones in front of us vanished, getting to the new wind zones before us. The big problem about this is that there’s nothing we can do to change it!” |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 16 April 2006 ) |
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