Vestas 11th Hour Racing continues to hold the lead with the leaders putting the first gybes in after leaving the island of Porto Santos to starboard.
© James Blake/Volvo Ocean Race
Next on the agenda is the new ‘virtual mark’ – a waypoint called Porto Santos North – due north of the fleet, before a slight right turn will take them to Lisbon and the finishing line.
“It’s about three in the morning I think, and we’re just coming to the rounding (Porto Santos) now,” said Simon Fisher, the navigator on the Vestas boat.
“We’ll be going back downwind now and pointing almost at Lisbon.”
The team had a scare overnight, when a hose popped off a water ballast tank, and 800 litres of water that should have been helping to stabalise the boat instead flooded down to leeward down below.
“Ironically, I came down here to do some performance analysis because the boat didn’t feel right,” explained skipper Charlie Enright. “When I sat down at the nav station I could here some sloshing around at the back of the boat. And the water ballast hose had let go, so we had 800 litres sloshing around in the bilge. That explained the performace issue!”
The water was quickly bailed, the hose reconnected, and the team back up to 100-percent. The focus will be on keeping MAPFRE and team AkzoNobel behind and setting up for the final approach to Lisbon for Saturday.
Further back in the fleet, Dongfeng Race Team is beginning to grind down the group of four fighting for fourth place, no nearly two miles ahead of the tightly-grouped pack.
“It’s important to get around the island first. Now we are going to be sailing downwind, so the more you are north, the more you will be leading,” said navigator Pascal Bidégorry. “For this group, it is better to be ahead. That is why we pushed so hard overnight.”
