09.06.2006
Slowly but surely
As day eight dawns on leg eight of the Volvo Ocean Race the leading yacht has just 223 miles to go until the finish line in Rotterdam. The boats have maintained speeds of up to ten knots throughout the night helping to propel them to that line as quickly as the weather gods will allow.
Ericsson (Neal McDonald) currently occupy the top spot of the leaderboard followed by Brasil1 (Torben Grael) in second. ABN AMRO ONE (Mike Sanderson) have fallen back to third place, a mile behind the Brazilian boat.
The leading pack are approaching the edges of Dogger Bank in the North Sea, an area of water of some 6800 square miles. Water depth ranges from 15-36 metres, about 20 metres shallower than the surrounding sea. The bank is littered with shipwrecks, one of the more unusual being the Lightship LV83, an intact lightship standing upright in 33 metres, rising to 20 metres at the top of the light tower.In 1931, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United Kingdom took place below the bank, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale. Its focus was 23 km beneath the bank, and the quake was felt in countries all around the North Sea, causing damage across eastern England.
Paul Cayard and his lost souls onboard the Pirates of the Caribbean have broken free from ABN AMRO TWO (Sebastien Josse) and Brunel (Matt Humphries) and are some ten miles ahead of the two rival Dutch boats, sailing to the west of zero longitude (the Greenwich Meridian Line) while the remainder of the fleet is sailing east of the line.
No significant change in the wind is forecast for the next few hours but the fleet will hopefully continue at this pace with the front runners arriving in Holland in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Leg Standing
Yacht
Latitude
Longitude
Distance To Finish
Speed Made Good
24 Hour Run
24 Hour Speed
Distance To Leader
Distance To Leader Change
Projected Leg Points
Estimated Time of Arrival
Projected Race Points
Projected Overall Standings
1
ERIC
55 23.16N
001 28.36E
00223
07.9
236
09.8
00000
+00000
7.0
10/06/06 07:__:__
52.0
4
2
BRA1
55 30.05N
001 44.85E
00225
07.3
237
09.9
00002
-00001
6.0
10/06/06 08:__:__
58.0
3
3
ABN1
55 31.44N
001 46.05E
00226
07.2
237
09.9
00003
-00002
5.0
10/06/06 08:__:__
89.5
1
4
POTC
56 39.31N
000 01.54W
00314
07.0
164
06.8
00091
-00003
4.0
10/06/06 19:__:__
63.5
2
5
AUS1
56 54.17N
000 03.39E
00326
08.8
154
06.4
00103
+00002
3.0
10/06/06 20:__:__
11.0
7
6
ABN2
56 59.82N
000 05.05E
00330
08.7
152
06.3
00107
+00001
2.0
10/06/06 21:__:__
50.5
5
ABN1 ABN AMRO ONE
ABN2 ABN AMRO TWO
BRA1 Brasil 1
AUS1 Brunel
ERIC Ericsson Racing Team
POTC Pirates of the Caribbean
DTLC: distance to leader change; the difference between the distance from the boat to the leader taken at the time of the last six hour poll, and the distance from the boat to the leader at the previous poll
Lizzie GreenPress Officer at race headquarters:
Tel: +44 1489 554 832, Mob: +44 7801 185 320
Email: lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org mailto:lizzie.green@volvooceanrace.org
Sophie Luther Press Assistant at race headquarters
Mob: +44 7956 285548 email: sophie.luther@volvooceanrace.org
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