Green Dragon's westward gamble has paid dividends for the time being at least, the Dragon is currently leading as they enter the Doldrums. "West is best they say and we've had to give up a lot to get out here," said Moore in an interview with Volvo Ocean Race radio (see audio and podcasts). "We all talked about it and so often it pays, but it was pretty hard watching the other guys turn south towards the Doldrums," he said.
The Nordic crew of Ericsson 3 was second at 3 miles Distance To Leader (DTL) with long-time leader PUMA relegated to third +16 (DTL)
Thereafter the order is: Telefonica Blue +26, who have benefited from the leaders hitting the wall to the Doldrums. Team Russia +31, Delta Lloyd +33, Ericsson 4 +47, and Telefonica Black +64 round out the positions.
The leader is expected to get to the scoring gate at Fernando de Noronha on Wednesday or Thursday this week. There are scoring points equivalent to half the leg points at the scoring gate, so lets hope its the Dragon who is first to the gate.
Green Dragon Skipper Ian Walker filled us in on the tactics going forward.
"What a difference a decent sleep makes. After a long spell studying the weather files with Ian last night I have just had 6 hours unbroken sleep. The little travel fans we have put up down below are really helping with the heat at the back of the boat, where there is no air circulation. Ian covered for me as one of us has to watch the radar so that we avoid the towering rain clouds at night. Now it is his turn to catch up and he is snoring like a freight train. Even better than such a good sleep is to wake up and find our strong push to the West seems to be paying off. It is still early days but we have gained 20 degrees of bearing on most of the fleet and we still have 120 miles of leverage. It would take them a long time to get to our line and they would be a long way behind us if they tried. This means that we should be the furthest boat West through the Doldrums, which has been our plan all along. Now all we have to do is hope that is right! We have searched every available piece of information to back up this decision and Damian's experience is also playing a big part - he has crossed the Doldrums in this direction 10 times and last time through on the Barcelona Race he lost 60 miles by being 25 miles too far East. That is fresh in his mind.
Right now we are sailing straight down the course (205 degrees) in 9 knots of breeze under A3 spinnaker and genoa staysail and taking the chance to fix some things, dry the sails and clean up a bit. After the doldrums it will be upwind for a considerable time. We are also trying to work hard on hygiene as even the smallest cuts and scratches can get infected quickly in this heat. Nobody wants to get spotty botty or saltwater rashes so cleanliness is the watchword and it is wet wipes, talcum powder and sudocreme all round - I should point out though that it is now day 8 and Neal hasn't even opened his kit bag yet whilst some of us are on our 2nd or 3rd pair of undies! Animal (Andrew McLean) is refusing to change his clothes until after King Neptune's visit which is little more than a day away now. Thanks for following the Green Dragon and I hope our climb up the rankings will put a smile on your face too today - lets just hope it lasts!"