Into the funnel The VOR fleet is squeezing down into the Malacca…
Into the funnel
The VOR fleet is squeezing down into the Malacca Strait. If you look at the wind image on the lower left, you can see the problem that front-runner Dongfeng faces: The farther into the funnel they go, the lighter the wind becomes, until they’re basically in drifting conditions. They’re also dealing with strong tidal currents, which in a worst-case scenario can mean it’s actually in their interest to anchor (assuming the water is shallow enough to allow it). I don’t expect any of the crews are going to get much sleep for the next day or two.
It looks like Dongfeng’s track took them into a finger of lighter wind today, while the rest of the fleet stayed south, closer to Sumatra, and made up a lot of ground. At noon UTC the Chinese boat had an 85-mile lead; by 2300 that was down to 25 miles, with Mapfre, ADOR, and Alvimedica close together and Brunel only a few miles behind. Fortunately for Dongfeng they started moving again in the last hour, while the boats behind seem to have slowed.
Farther astern, SCA appears to be making a play for more wind (or better current?) by heading south toward the Sumatran coast. At first it didn’t seem to be working, but from the wind diagram it looks like it has a chance, and in the last hour they’ve started moving well.
Reposted from http://ift.tt/1J11cJ2.
Tags: vor, volvo ocean race, weareteamsca, dongfeng race team.
