Slow Progress : Green Dragon Leg Four Day 13

It feels a bit strange being the only ones left out racing. For a start, there is no reason to look at the position reports every three hours as we know where we are - well we do most of the time when the GPS works.

This has been another frustrating 24 hours of slow progress when we just want to get to Qingdao. First we encountered winds 90 degrees out from the forecasted direction and in the 10 - 14 knot range that we have no suitable headsail for (due to the broken forestay), then we sat in virtually no wind for several hours South of Shanghai.

We finally got going yesterday evening to be pinned back by 2.5-knot currents against us. Still we plugged away upwind off Shanghai for what seemed like days and worked up towards the Yangtze River.

The water temperature has dropped to seven degrees and it has been raining non-stop with virtually zero visibility at night. Sailing upwind with no immediate competitors we can sail with two people on deck and two sitting in the hatch on call.

As we got within 20 miles of the shore and close to Puma and Ericsson 4's line, Ian Moore, navigator, shrewdly decided for us to tack out in case of fishing nets near the shore. We tacked to port and within five minutes snared our first net - we were 10 minutes too late!

It took us over two hours to get free from net after net. At one point, we were backing down to clear the keel and running into more nets backwards! Some poor Chinese fisherman has had a very bad night - so did we.

We ended up threading our way out at six knots with searchlights on the bow a reefed mainsail and no jib up so we could easily back down or stop dead if we had to. Unfortunately, for our shore crew one of the fishing lines has sawed its way through the lower part of our rudder - their list is long enough without more work.

Justin Slattery had to go over the side on a halyard to pull this one free -not a job I would have liked given the water temperature. He successfully did this as Anthony Merrington controlled the boat in reverse with full cant the wrong way on the keel in a semi-capsize position to try to keep Justin dry. To make matters worse we nearly washed some sails over the side in the process having not yet secured them after the tack.

Anyway to cut an eventful night short, we emerged from the fishing net trap at daybreak and have since then been bashing upwind in 20 - 25 knots wind. This is not what we wanted for our bow but the repair seems really strong, so we are getting ever more confident. 

As I write this we have 250 miles to go dead upwind. Unfortunately, the wind is due to drop, which may stop us from getting there in daylight tomorrow. It is hard to average 10 knots upwind without all our jibs and a good breeze.

Only a few days ago we were questioning whether we would get to Qingdao at all – let’s not get too greedy.

Leg Four Finishing Order Qingdao

Overall Leaderboard (Provisional)

Two other boats have either retired (Telefónica Black/Fernando Echávarri/ESP) or suspended racing (Delta Lloyd/Roberto Bérmudez/ESP.  Teams that have suspended or retired from this leg will be assigned points by the race committee at a later date.

Leg Four Day 13: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions