It’s day 10 of the 12,300 nm leg of the Volvo Ocean Race from Qingdao to Rio, and Ericsson 4 (Torben Grael/BRA) has fought off her opponents and still leads the race south as the team crossed into the southern hemisphere. However, there has been plenty of excitement on the race track and also some narrow escapes with wildlife in the last 24 hours. Controlling the pack, Ericsson 4’s crew are describing the sailing conditions as glorious. The crew of third placed Ericsson 3 (Magnus Olsson/SWE) is fully back in the game. Ian Walker/GBR and his Green Dragons are reaping the reward of their easterly course as they reel in the leaders, gaining 147 nm from 1300 on Saturday to 1300 GMT today. The team is still well over 100 nm to the east of where the leaders passed and this could mean big gains or huge losses if things go against the team. They have overtaken Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) who is sailing in the wake of the leading trio, but not without a very close incident with a huge whale first thing this morning. As the fleet races on through the endless atolls and islands, the crew of Telefónica Blue was rather shocked to receive a message on their navigational warning system, which indicated volcanic activity very close to a position the team crossed two days ago.
