The Ericsson Racing Team is fighting its way back in the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race. Only 58 miles away from the leader ABN Amro One, the team has a few good opportunities to play, as explains Juan Vila, one of Ericsson Racing Team’s meteorological advisers. The fleet is headed for Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) where it is expected to arrive in around eight days time.

Ericsson has been benefiting from excellent - although very brutal - sailing conditions during the last 48 hours, whilst the boats at the head of the fleet were confronted with massive patches with no wind. On the last position sched, Ericsson was sailing at approximately 25 knots, whilst the leaders ABN Amro One, Brasil 1 and Pirates of the Caribbean were becalmed, doing 3-8 knots in big seas.

Ericsson skipper Neal McDonald’s (GBR) prediction seems to be materializing. “There will be a lot of opportunities as we round Cape Horn and just after”, he explained. “The guys are very focused and they carry on sailing aggressively. I am proud of them for this, because it is tough when you are at the back of the fleet.”

This morning (Friday), navigator Steve Hayles (GBR) commented on the recent sailing conditions: “As we approached Cape Horn, we were being chased by a very deep and threatening Southern Ocean depression. We were going fast and in the hours of darkness it would have been madness to set any more sail but we had 250 miles to go to the scoring gate and we needed another knot of speed to catch ABN Amro Two. We geared ourselves up and set a bigger chute at first light; from the second we set the thing it was clear this was going to be a ‘big day at the office’.”

Hayles continued: “Tim was driving and in these conditions he is hard to beat; nothing normally fazes him, but a look at his face made it clear that this was no walk in the park. The sea state as we rounded Cape Horn was unlike anything we’ve seen before and most of us have been round it a few times.” Indeed for Spaniard Guillermo Altadill, this is his sixth time.

A new race is currently starting, as the boats head north towards Rio de Janeiro. Juan Vila, meteorological adviser to the Ericsson Racing Team explains: “The leading boats are sailing in a patch of light wind located at approximately 52 degrees south. This is developing around the Falklands, and will give some good opportunities for the boats coming from behind. After this, the wind should build from the north/north-west so they will be reaching at a closed angle towards another patch of lighter winds, located around 42 degrees south. This is the St-Helena high pressure system. It is currently located far to the west and will play an important role in the race towards Rio de Janeiro.”

In previous Whitbread / Volvo Ocean Races, the Falkland Islands have often played a crucial role. However, Juan Vila doesn’t believe this will be the case. “I guess they will all sail to the east of the Falklands, otherwise they would be beating along the South American coast in lighter winds.”

Steve Hayles, and the other navigators, must all be thinking hard about how to get north as quickly as possible. But for Hayles, there are also some other distractions, as he commented in his latest email from the boat:

“Just as we started enjoying the flat water after Cape Horn, another minor drama reared its head. The motion had been so violent that one side of the battery bank had broken free; they were now shorting on some carbon structure inside the box and were starting a resin fire. Jason, Bagi [Magnus Woxen] and myself set about opening the battery compartment which was so well sealed that it took 20 minutes to prize it apart. We were getting electrical shocks from everything. There was more smoke and flames were starting to show. We quickly levered the whole bank away from the carbon and the problem was solved.

“It’s been an epic 48 hours that will linger long in the memory; for now though its back to business as normal as we set about getting into the boats ahead. I look forward to some conditions that suit Ericsson a little more and being able to shout from the hatch that ‘we’re on fire’ and not mean it literally!”

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