The start of the second part of the third leg is not for tactics freaks. Wind from port, bow to the east, sheets tight and throttle down. For days on end. Anyone with even the slightest speed deficit here has to tack away from the Sumatra anchorage, pass behind everyone and get back in line. Team Sanya, for example, who greeted the camera to celebrate the Chinese New Year, had to sail clear because their old, patched-up boat can't keep up with the newer VO-70 models and they can't sail a few degrees higher. Will that work in the year of the dragon?
Telefonica also had to, because the Code Zero, which was absolutely critical in these conditions, broke at the top soon after the start and was taken below deck for repairs. Camper also made a dash northwards in order to position itself better against the leading Puma team and to consolidate its second place against Groupama. In reality, however, all the boats are almost neck and neck and fanned out next to each other over a distance of just twelve miles.
"In a drag race with no tactical options, we're in a bad position," said Sanya skipper Mike Sanderson. "But we're within striking distance and waiting for an opportunity." He knows how to take extreme strokes, as he proved on the last leg, but it didn't work out because the rig was damaged. Sanderson is hoping for a new start in the Strait of Malacca, where with little wind and a lot of current, dense shipping traffic and unlit fishing boats, some of his rivals could be played badly.
The boys from Puma were given a drastic demonstration of how this works yesterday when the boat got caught in a drift net. "It cost us maybe a quarter of a mile," said skipper Ken Read. "If it had happened during the night, we'd probably still be stuck." But it didn't, and so the journey continued quickly. At 5 a.m. CET, Puma was 1.3 miles ahead of Camper and 2.9 ahead of Groupama, according to the position report. The entire field was travelling at around 11 knots towards Sumatra, sailing far to the south-east of Sri Lanka to avoid the long slipstream.
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Life in the neighbourhood
Current positions and distances in the Live tracker.
