Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

In spite of a really long, physically demanding day yesterday, Ellen MacArthur and Greg Homann are gradually working their way up the results board, moving into 10^th place overall after Leg 7 on Day 4 of the Archipelago Raid.

Althought the experienced French Formula 18-duo Eric Proust and Romain Motteau on Team Kalix have been leading the Archipelago Raid since Day 1, they are having to beat off some stiff competition from the other boats, notably from

Swedish Team Thule (Martin Strandberg/Johan Örtendahl), whose strategic decision to paddle while the other teams tacked when leaving Nagu island in the Finnish archipelago helped them to win leg 7.

This is the fourth day of the Raid and the boats are back in the Åland archipelago, sailing in great conditions with winds around 10-15 knots.

Several teams have problems with their GPS, because of the humidity. They are having to rely on traditional chart navigation, demanding a lot more of the tired sailors.

The tension is rising in the fleet to achieve a good result and the second leg of the day which started early afternoon was full of action, with three boats capsizing over the line! Team Blue Oceans, NCC, and First Hotels were too eager in the gusty winds and turned over. They were all quickly back on track but with a lot of energy consumed.

The eighth leg will take the competitors to Rödhamn in Åland, where they will arrive at the Yacht Club of Åland late tonight.

Tomorrow, Tuesday, the boats will start the long journey “home”, back to the Stockholm archipelago, ending the day at Sandhamn.

On Wednesday 18 June, the race finishes in the city of Stockholm late afternoon.

See updated results at www.archipelagoraid.com

In spite of having problems with their furler, Ellen MacArthur and Greg Homann are managing to maintain their position amongst the first 12 boats in the fleet. As they cannot roll up their head sail, this causes problems when they need to paddle so they are hoping that the wind doesn’t drop in the coming days.

After a night of pouring rain on the island of Lappo, the fleet started today, the third day of the Archipelago Raid, at 5 a.m.. This was two hours later than originally intended, due to flat calm in the early hours. The start was eventually given in 15 knots of north-easterly winds and the Formula 18 catamarans charged away at full speed under spinnaker towards the five checkpoints before the leg finish at Fårö in the Finnish archipelago.

The Belgian team Patrick Demesmaeker and Michel Proot on RBSC Huysman dominated the fleet, winning the first leg of the day, but were closely followed by the leading pack of the French overall leaders Eric Proust and Romain Matteau on Team Kalix, the Swedes Fredrik Ekman and Gustav Tempelman on Sundsvalls Bygg, and Martin Strandberg and Johan Örtendahl, Team Thule.

The wind has picked up and the boats are reaching speeds of up to 20 knots. No other people or boats are to be seen although there are small, inhabited islands everywhere. At such high speeds, the teams have to be particularly alert to hidden rocks and be careful not to make any navigational errors. Almost 80 percent of the fleet hit rocks this morning and many dagger boards suffered damage.

On this third day of the Raid, the physical demands are already taking their toll. At some checkpoints located on beaches the teams have to jump out of the boat, run up to check in and run back to the boat. Many sailors have been struggling to get back up on the boats…

Yesterday the weather picture was different. The teams had a tough day in light winds and rain in the Åland archipelago. The last teams arrived more than two and a half hours after the leader to the night stop at Lappo, as the wind died and they had to paddle longer distances.

Throughout the day today, the competitors will complete a good 100 nautical miles before they arrive at the last stop of the day, Nagu, in the Finnish archipelago. Tomorrow the fleet will head back towards Rödhamn in the western part of the Åland archipelago.

After leg 3 on Day 2 of the Archipelago Raid, Ellen MacArthur and Greg Homann have made it to tenth place in the fleet.

After only a couple of hours of sleep, they left Lidö in the archipelago of Stockholm at 03.30 to head out into the Baltic Sea towards Åland, an area full of small islands between Sweden and Finland. In light south-easterly winds, at around eight knots, the teams made a few big tacks over the Baltic Sea towards Rödhamn in Åland.

The warm weather that Sweden has seen in the past month is now gone and it is cold and humid,  The water in the Baltic Sea is only 13 degrees Celsius so many of the teams arriving in Åland were tired, wet and cold. In the light winds and open sea brokerage is not yet an issue although the Swedish boat Klinger with Thommy Sundström and Markus Lagerqvist onboard retired this morning after they broke their spinnaker pole yesterday.

The fleet is now heading northeast towards Lappo in the north-eastern part of the Åland Archipelago. They will navigate a number of checkpoints before arriving later on tonight, having sailed around 80-100 nautical miles. As this archipelago is littered with rocks and islands there are many navigational options to choose from and the rainy afternoon will demand good tactics from the sailors. In the light winds, the crews will probably have to execute a bit of the dreaded paddling that the Archipelago Raid is notorious. Early tomorrow morning the boats will set sail even further east towards Nagu in the Finnish archipelago. 

Text message received from Ellen on 14 June 2008 at 01:24:

Just woken, big first day. All going well. No majors. Boat fine, us fine. Touched the board on a rock yesterday but all OK. Fixed!

Ellen 

Good evening or “God Kväll” from Stockholm where we are counting down the hours to the start of the Archipelago Raid. As I write, Ellen is kneeling on the floor of her hotel bedroom with charts all around her and a GPS, plotting the route for the first day of the Raid.

It has been a full-on day for all of us here preparing the BT F18. I was sent off to the local chandlery (thanks to all the guys at Benns and One Design!) with a long shopping list of last minute purchases while Ellen and Greg (Homann) worked on the catamaran checking sails, shackles, waterproof seals, etc.

 A couple more things to do tomorrow, but we are pretty much ready… bring it on!

 Katie (Ellen’s PR/PA)