The Dragon has taken the gamble to bag points at the gate, navigator Ian Moore updated us from the race course, “So we have a new game, learning to sail without a boom, getting third at the scoring gate and you never know maybe even a result on the leg. We can see by the length on the Scheds that we are not the only ones having a few issues out here. It will be fascinating to see what the stories are from other boats but if we can carry on dealing with our adversities the way we have been, then we might be able to claw some points out of what looked like a last in leg situation.” Read his full blog here <http://greendragonracing.com/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.greendragonracing.com%2Fen%2Fteamblog%2Farticle%2Fso-far-so-good%2F>
The race north has begun, Green Dragon were the first boat to gybe north last night at 1900 GMT, with the rest of the fleet following suit soon after. Green Dragon is holding onto third place behind the two Ericsson boats. PUMA are 28 miles behind them in fourth position, with Telefoncia Black bringing up the rear some 194 miles behind current leader Ericsson 3. Soon the fleet will be sailing into lighter conditions and back into the heat as they approach the equator. For the crew onboard Green Dragon this provide an opportunity to repair their broken boom, “We hope to start the repair when conditions improve and when the temperature rises a bit for the glue and resin we have onboard to cure.” commented Ian Walker this morning. The forecast ahead shows a band of high pressure waiting for the fleet, it will be a huge hurdle for the boats to navigate through or around as they sail to India, once through this system the fleet will be back into the kinder south east Trade Winds. You can see this system on the Race Viewer click here <http://greendragonracing.com/?URL=http%3A%2F%2Fvolvooceanrace.geovoile.com%2F>
Update from Skipper Ian Walker
“We are thrilled to get 3rd place and 3 points at the Mauritius scoring gate. This has been our sole focus since breaking the boom two days ago. We seem to be able to sail downwind with spinnakers quite well and even now reaching with one reef seems ok. It is the upwind sailing that we must hope to avoid. Our gybe went very well too thanks to a catamaran style sheeting system rigged up by Justin Slattery. India still feels an awful long way away right now. We hope to start the repair when conditions improve and when the temperature rises a bit for the glue and resin we have onboard to cure. I am not wildly optimistic but I think the lads are looking forward to the challenge. I just have to stop them cutting the boat up in the process!”
Leg Two Day Five : 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
(boat name/country/skipper/nationality/distance to finish)
Ericsson 3 SWE (Anders Lewander/SWE) DTF 3021
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) + 17
Green Dragon IRL/CHN (Ian Walker/GBR) + 57
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) + 85
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) + 86
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) + 167
Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) + 172
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) + 194
