Volvo Style Ocean Leg 4 Pacific Gateway “Open Card” Sailing

Living wave to wave and ocean line by line, following the Volvo Ocean Race it becomes clear that no one out there knows the world oceans like Volvo Ocean Race Teams do. Racing sails around the world skippers and crew get ocean intimate and reveal the oceans the Volvo style.

From dead wind zones, to monster storms and breathe stopping waves, from buckle up winds to sailing strategy at its best, to ocean state today, marine traffic, real live sightings, contamination and environmental aspects, the Volvo Ocean Race unfolds the aspects of the ocean which are kept hidden, secret to most of humankind.

On February 15th Volvo reported on the strategies of each team as they sailed the Solomon Islands basin. Team SCA and Team Brunel gambled strongest with more to win and more to lose as they headed up North in aims of cutting distance from the fleet of leaders formed by Abu Dhabi, MAPFRE, China owns Dongfeng Race Team and Alvimedica Team which played it safe bearing more southern winds.

The overall strategy of each team is the price well kept by all crew members. With online repòrters, continual blogging, live tracking sailing today faces the hardest challenge ever in its history... to keep the strategy a secret. Just a few decades before if a team lost track of the fleet it had little chances other than guessing where the leaders where. Today online technology while bringing much to the table opens the play. It is as playing poker with an open hand which all can see, but teams are learning how to keep one card hidden under the sleeve or better said face down on the table.

Teams MAPFRE and Abu Dhabi and Dongfeng Race Team from China have been going at it hard and steady competing for the first three positions through the past long nautical miles. Behind Teams Brunel, Alvimedica and Team SCA5. Team Vestas Wind did not start.

To deliver the human experience Volvo uploads reports, live blogs, feeds live video, allows live tracking and exposes broadcasting from the frontline of the regatta. Navigation mastering around the world, 11 ports and more than 38.7 nautical miles is the grid.

The 10 thousand kilometers of Leg 3 and its highlights also attract the eye for several reasons. Slow winds, complex tactics, heavy marine traffic, waste and contamination sightings and the wearing out of even the more skilled skippers were reported by Volvo Ocean.,

The fleet flew over the Persian Gulf waters, submerged in the environment of the Coast of India, crossed the Malacca Strait and digged deep into the insides of the mystical Sea of China -obstacles can not be numbered, Volvo assures.

Impressive photography such as the fogged covered port of Abu Dhabi, sky night filled with stars, hard core sailing manevours and water wind sail flows and onboard life of the seven boats made the day as well as the international news.

Sailors complained and raised awareness on environmental issues as well, floating garbage and being trapped in fishing nets surprised the readers.

”Contamination in this zone of the ocean is incredible and also tragic,” onboard reported at Team SCA, Corinna Halloran stated.

But the ocean still had much wild untouched wild realm to reveal to teams.

“Faces which shine with salt crystals,” the moment when human words become numb and almost silent, chaos brought forward by empower winds, the test of the straits, Volvo turned to all its poetic tools in aims of describing whatever it was that the crews and teams were actually living.

On February 23rd Francisco Vignale of MAPFRE reported that the “regatta was on fire”. “This looks like a casino,” Jean Luc stated at the sight of the fleet gathered together under variable wind conditions.

“All in the same situation, the first can be last, but the last can also be first,” Jean Luc concluded.

“We are in a good position for transition and hope that the wind will be with us, the rest in the hands of the 8 regattists which work without rest and for 24 hours a day with the goal of taking MAPFRE to the highest place of the podium,” MAPFRE ended it speaking of what it is really all about...or is it?

Ocean Life News in Brief

Ocean Level Increase Dropping Oceans Floor: International Press reported on December 5 on the findings of new research which assures that due to ocean level increase the ocean floor is sinking. The study published online in Geophysical Research Levels used mathematical equations to accurately measure the Ocean's floor impact driven by the increased of water volume weight. Using data from 1993 to 2014 researchers found that ocean level increase is causing the Ocean floor to drop globally by the milimeters. Ocean Dead Zones Up By Four: On January 8 New York Daily reported that Ocean Dead Zones have quadrupled.Researchers warned in a new study that oxygen-starved ocean dead zones, where animals and plants are struggling to survive, have increased fourfold and it may not be reversible. The new study was published in the Journal Science. The increase of Dead Zones was linked to climate change. La Niña´s Polar Wave Hitting Hard the US -Freezing Oceans: International Press reported on the Polar Wave hitting hard the US. The event is linked by experts to the influence of La Niña. “For the past couple of weeks, parts of North America have been chilling down to record temperatures, with massive snowfall and icy cold conditions putting life at a standstill for many,” media reported. The US East Coast has been particularly badly hit with the likes of Boston down to Philadelphia reaching bone-chilling lows of near 0°F , with icy winds making it feel closer to around -10°F to -20°F. Officially 18 were dead and 100 million affected. Government of Bali Declares a Garbage Emergency: On January 5 Ocean Conservancy reported on a New Waste Management Emergency in Bali. Massive amounts of ocean debri are affecting the island. The situation has reached its peak as the Government of Bali declared a “Garbage Emergency”. Clean up works have began. “Ivory Coast Village Swallowed by Ocean Increase,” Aljazeera Reports: On January 8 Al Jazeera reported that ocean increase levels are affecting infrastructure in the Ivory Coast. “Rising tides and more frequent, devastating storms are slowly destroying what is left of Lahou-Kpanda, the offshoot of what was once a major colonial town near the mouth of the Bandama River, the longest river in Ivory Coast,” Al Jazeera reported. Arctic Ocean Radioactive Levels on the Rise: IFL Science reported on January 3 on the findings of new report which assures that radioactive levels in the Arctic Ocean are on the rise. “Concentrations of radioactive radium-228 in the Arctic Ocean increased between 2007 and 2015,” the report reads. While levels have not yet reached a mark of concern the trend is worries experts. Lauren Kipp of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution addressed the issue. New World Wide Ocean Turtle Study Says 90% of Plastic Pollution Cases Result in Death: Earth Sky Org reported on January 7 that hundreds of marine turtles die every year after getting tangled in trash in oceans and on beaches. A research published in the journal Endangered Species Research took on a World-Wide Survey covering the major oceans where turtles live. They discovered that 91 % of the entangled turtles were found dead. They also suffered serious wounds from entanglement, leading to maiming, amputation or choking. Double Whirlpools Discovered for First Time: December 4 Press reported that Double Eddies have been registered for the first time in History. Tangled up Double Eddies can travel great distances affecting ecology significantly. Eddies are a natural part of the ocean environment but double whirlpools had only been theorized by mathematicians.