Team Blog – Ian Walker – 30th January 2012

Monday, 30 January 2012 | by ADOR

We are now within 50 miles of Singapore – one of my favourite cities in the world. It is going to be very hard not to stop in for a visit! Right now we could all do with a cool, soft drink and a freshwater shower.

In my mind this represents the end of the second stage of leg 3B… i.e. the Malacca Straits. I have to say that with the exception of a period of getting stuck in the shipping lane with little or no wind to manoeuvre, the Straits have held very few of the perils we feared. No pirates, no collisions, far less debris in the water than I remember last time, fewer thunder storms and fewer periods of calm.

Having said that, the waters off Singapore will offer lots more shipping and some strong adverse currents so we are not out of the woods yet.

The Straits have been very interesting tactically with Camper, and our traditional move to the Malaysian coast, failing to produce the rewards we hoped for. Although we are closer to the leaders than we have been in days, and have also had great fun trading places with Camper for the last 24 hours.

We finally got passed them yesterday evening after a day spent chasing hard, only to lose the place back when the wind becalmed before the onset of the land breeze. We passed them back rounding a headland with strong adverse current in the night only to lose out again upwind today.

Right now they are 200 metres ahead of us and we have just hoisted our spinnaker, which is when we normally start to make gains. We are in for a busy night again for sure in one of the busiest waterways in the world. Right now the top five boats are within 25 miles of each other after eight days racing.

Looking ahead it would be fair to say that nobody onboard is looking forward to the last part of this leg. It’s 1,200 miles upwind to China with some certain rough conditions off the Vietnamese coast. Now is the time to be checking things over, doing any small maintenance bits and any other chores before the sea conditions deteriorate in the South China Sea.

date: Monday, 30 January 2012 14:12:24 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)

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Comments [10]

Tuesday, 06 March 2012 03:22:10 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Mambo im not sure if the people on here are luejoas of zaha and yes i agree that there are many idiots on this site but if you are a true fan of zaha you can tell that she didn t do this its zaha in name only, i don t believe that she actually did the drawings and if she did then i am a little disappointed.She really is a rare treasure but you must agree that some of the projects that hadid has produced recently are not in the same league of her previous works.I don t know but i believe that once a practise gets to a certain size it must be difficult for a principle to retain design control of all work turned out from their office . its a shame!
Thursday, 08 March 2012 09:46:07 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Liz is not just ANY page turner. Liz is the Heifetz, the Pavarotti, the veritable Yo-Yo Ma of page turners. She is the kind of page turned who, if I was completely fumbling a difficult passage, would suddenly have an uncontrollable puking fit so as to draw attention away from my screwup. She also knows exactly how many pieces of sushi you might need at intermission. At least that's my experience; your mileage may vary One last bit of clothing advice for page turners: No dangly loose jackets. I once played a whole violin recital with silk caressing my left cheek at every turn. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it, but it was kind of distracting.

Monday, 12 March 2012 05:53:58 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
I wouldn't be able to get rid of it either! I'm not much of a collector, but when it comes to sentimental items, it's impossible for me to part with them. xo

Saturday, 17 March 2012 06:07:01 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Paki, aunque con retraso, te comunico que todos los que lo solicist teis a trav s de los coemntarios est is admitidos/as

Tuesday, 27 March 2012 09:51:46 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Paki, aunque con retraso, te comunico que todos los que lo solicist teis a trav s de los coemntarios est is admitidos/as

Friday, 30 March 2012 09:22:51 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Paki, aunque con retraso, te comunico que todos los que lo solicist teis a trav s de los coemntarios est is admitidos/as

Friday, 30 March 2012 10:09:06 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Paki, aunque con retraso, te comunico que todos los que lo solicist teis a trav s de los coemntarios est is admitidos/as

Friday, 30 March 2012 10:56:48 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
Paki, aunque con retraso, te comunico que todos los que lo solicist teis a trav s de los coemntarios est is admitidos/as

Tuesday, 03 April 2012 10:51:07 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
I had a toasted sandwich too, here in Scotland, where’s it’s summer and actually a bit too hot for me. It must have been, oh, about 25 degrees.Mind you, yesterday I got soaked in cold rain.

Thursday, 05 April 2012 08:43:11 (Arabian Standard Time, UTC+04:00)
If it wasn’t already too late, I’d so want to be like you when I grew up. You, and all those stairs, just awesome. I too am afraid that I wouldn’t be able to climb that many stairs, like at all.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in any way. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing / Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority is not responsible for third party comments on the website.