© Renault Z.E.
Indeed it was a relieved looking Pepe Ribes from Estrella Damm who remarked today that ‘our bruises will heal but the main thing is the boat is OK.’ Ribes was taking little satisfaction from their routing through the system, describing the big, very disturbed and confused seas which had them throttled back to sailing with just a small staysail for 12 hours. For 30 hours the wind was not less than 40 knots, and they had periods up to 50 knots. He said the conditions were much worse than they had been expecting
“It was not good, we crossed the eye of Atu or rather we found it by thinking we could sail inside it, but no, you can’t sail in these conditions, we knew that but we did not dodge it. I think that having Groupe Bel close with us influenced our decision.
I don’t know if you remember the film quote, ‘Do not underestimate the power of The Force.’, well we felt the power and the force of nature. It gave us 30 hours of winds 45 knots and spells of 50 knots and a very confused seas.”
Ribes and co-skipper Alex Pella both sustained painful bruising in separate incidents, Pella falling against a winch while putting in a reef and Ribes while wrestling with a wild headsail furler. The three times Volvo round the world race veteran Ribes confirmed they were drained after their exploits but they were joint quickest boat of the fleet this morning and already trying to hunt down Groupe Bel. Their fellow Wellington pit-stop partners have been between two and three knots slower and Estrella Damm had made 11 miles on Kito De Pavant and Seb Audigane during the morning and early afternoon.
A temporary transmission blank from MAPFRE’s tracking beacon has seen the Spanish duo Iker Martinez and Xabi Fernandez miss out on accurate position of their position reporting today, but there is little doubt that they are still pacing leader Virbac-Paprec 3 as both appeared in a remarkable duplex, boat-to-boat visio-conference link up (see website media gallery).
MAPFRE’s Iker Martinez admitted they are finding it tough to hold on to the pace of Virbac-Paprec 3 which was 28 miles ahead of them this morning. He admitted they are pushing very hard, wind. Martinez said:
“ Now we have had a change of wind and themanoeuvres have got more complicated, and to keep closer to Virbac Paprec 3 we really have to work a lot. We really would like to get to the Horn and start going up and now it looks like we have favourable winds, that will allow us to go directly there.”
The leaders are now expected at Cape Horn some time on Thursday, with their pace due to pick up still more over the next couple of days, likely to squeeze round the notorious Cape on the heels of a fast moving, typical low pressure system.
Quotes:
Pepe Ribes (ESP) Estrella Damm:“It was not good, we crossed the eye of Atu or rather we found it by thinking we could sail inside it, but no. You can’t sail in these conditions, we knew that but we did not dodge it. I think that having Groupe Bel close with us influenced our decision. I don’t know if you remember the film quote, “Do not underestimate the power of the force.”, well we felt the power and the force of nature. It gave us 30 hours of winds 45 knots and spells of 50 knots and a very confused seas. We had to take down the mainsail and sailed for 12 hours with only the staysail, trying to survive.
Alex and I feel like we half succeeded, considering we have had to swallow tons of Ibuprofen, Alex with a bash to his ribs, and me under my ribs on the right side. The Pearl does not seem to have sustained any damage at first glance. What a boat we have and how it holds the road, and it has done the equivalent miles to four circumnavigations on the clock. What a relation we have with her.
I did not eat anything solid for 30 hours only energy bars and shakes because it was impossible to do anything and do anything with anything which was not attached to the boat, so you were in the bunk or on the floor.”
Loick Peyron (FRA) Virbac-Paprec 3:“We get to the last gate in 70 miles and then finally we will be free. We have had a very unsettled wind, it is icy cold and it is raining, sleet on the deck. The weather is cold so Jean-Pierre is in the sleeping bag resting. And so I currently play with the pilot, push button sailing,”
“From here it will be quite windy but I think we are lucky because we are between the two depressions. It should be quick and so in four days we should be at Cape Horn. We have worked hard and made a lot of sail changes and operations to adapt to the wind changes. And on deck you get hot very quickly and then cool down quickly. So the choice is not just what sails but what clothes. We are proper fashion victims.
MAPFRE sails well and they are very serious customers. We watch their position, their speed and course, one imagines their sail combinations and their weather.
The race is full of excitement, it is thrilling.”
IkerMartinez (ESP) MAPFRE:“Now we have had a change of wind and themanoeuvres have got more complicated, and to keep closer to Virbac Paprec 3 we have to work a lot. We really would like to get to the Horn and start going up and now it looks like we have favourable winds, that will allow us to go directly there.”
“ We are doing good, much better than we thought. I think we used the little time we had before the race well. Even if it was not a lot of time we used it well and we had a real great help in Sanxenxo, we are very grateful to Pedro Campos and all the guys there that gave everything to help us prepare the boat and that we think has made a difference.
The routings suggests we could get to Cape Horn on 3rd March.
For the moment we have to face a weather situation, because we are going to have a heavy storm. Looking at the routings we see that this storm is coming and if we go fast we could arrive to the Horn just as it is starting, but if we end up behind it could take us full on and there is no escape because we have to round the Cape and this should be done just before or at the beginning of this great storm and that doesn’t look good at all”.
Rankings at 1400hrs Sunday 27th February 2011
1 VIRBAC-PAPREC 3 at 8428 miles to finish
2 MAPFRE approx 28 miles from the leader at 1130hrs
3 RENAULT Z.E at 1334 miles
4 NEUTROGENA at 1420 miles
5 MIRABAUD at 1587 miles
6 GROUPE BEL at 1838 miles
7 ESTRELLA DAMM Sailing Team at 1927 miles
8 HUGO BOSS at 2231 miles
9 GAES CENTROS AUDITIVOS at 2295 miles
10 FORUM MARITIM CATALA at 3488 miles
11 CENTRAL LECHERA ASTURIANA at 3811miles
12 WE ARE WATER at 4565 miles
RTD FONCIA
RTD PRESIDENT
From Barcelona World Race
