received 14.12.08 2042 GMT
The weather brief that we received from our meteorologist, Fritz Koek, has been spot on so far on leg 3. The short sprint from the start, down to the virtual marks that Volvo laid to the south of Sri Lanka, would be full of geographically placed 'bands of wind' and 'bands of little wind':
From the start - A band of westerly sea breeze
No wind
A band of land breeze from the east
No wind
A band of strong 20-knot wind from the east that funnels between India and Sri Lanka
Little wind on the lee side of Sri Lanka as we round the first waypoint (this is where we are now)
The strategic implications of this brief?
After the first park up, of no wind, the first boats to sail south into the land breeze from the east would jump ahead of the fleet. Winning the first 6 hours of the race would be key in this Yo-Yo race. During the first park-up, the entire fleet was separated, on a north-south basis of only 1 or 2 miles. 2 miles was all it took for the leaders to leap ahead 30 miles as they got the land breeze first and sailed away from the boats that were still adrift - Yo.
It was the time for the boats at the back to play catch-up as the leaders sailed into the next parking lot. We were all separated by only a handful of miles yet again. Yo
The leaders got south into the strong funnelling wind from the east and zoomed away. Yo
Still blast reaching at 20 knots the trailing boats caught back up to the leaders. Yo
How many more 'Yos' are left in this leg? Plenty! Stay tuned.
Matt Gregory - navigator
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