The Nordics, skippered by Magnus Olsson, have had control of this marathon Leg 5 since navigator Aksel Magdahl’s gamble to ignore Southern Ocean tradition and head north from the previous waypoint at 36 degrees south.
Olsson took over the reins of Ericsson 3 from Anders Lewander at the start of this leg in Qingdao, having deputised for Lewander on the previous stage while he nursed an injury leg.
Today marked the 60-year-old’s sixth rounding. “Anytime you go round Cape Horn your heart beats a little faster,” he said. “You can feel the historical moments of this place, all of the seamen who’ve fought to get round it. It’s fantastic.”
Member Crew Member Gustav Morin led the festivities on behalf of the first-timers. “We celebrated with a drink of Captain Morgan rum,” he said. “Captain Morgan’s going to lead us to Rio now because Magnus is so tired.”
The sistership, Ericsson 4, picked up 3.5 points for rounding in second place at 14:48 GMT. Skipper Torben Grael, ticking the box for the second time, said: “Cape Horn for sailors is like climbing Mount Everest.”
For the leading duo, the treacherous conditions anticipated at the Horn did not materialize with wind conditions in the 25-30 knot range and moderate seas. That may not be the case for the chasing pack.
On the final approach, Ericsson 4’s Media Crew Member Guy Salter handed out plaudits to his stable mates. “The Ericsson 3 boys have managed to hold us off – and fair play to them – they played a good move early after the last scoring gate – a move which none of the rest of us were as brave to play and go against all that is traditional with the NZ to the Horn leg,” he wrote.
Further back in the fleet, the deficits to PUMA and the Irish-Chinese entry Green Dragon, seeking something to celebrate on St Patrick’s Day, were 94 and 191 miles respectively from the waypoint. Telefonica Blue was 722 miles adrift. Twenty-four hours on and the furious fifties have got a little more furious! The wind has been steadily building and the sea state has been building to match. Added to this there is a big south westerly swell rolling in resulting in some waves that are really very big and very steep. Luckily with our new, bigger rudders, we have a little more control than in the past to deal with these monsters, but, inevitably, there are some waves that you go down that you just cannot escape. You take off downhill and see the boat speed rising into the thirties, the bow starts to bury as you are frantically looking for a way out, however sometimes all the exits are closed so you have no choice but to brace yourself and prepare for impact!
The spray pitches up as the nose goes under and you feel the boat decelerate. All of a sudden the boat is pointed 45 degrees down. At this stage, you can see nothing but water and you hang on hoping to maintain control, the spray settles, hopefully you are still going straight and then you are off again until the next one!!
Despite the toughening conditions, it has at times, been a beautiful day with bright sunshine and a bright blue sea, however, when the clouds roll over, the sea quickly changes back to its cold grey colour as if someone has switched the colour off and turned the surroundings into black and white once again…
The sun is just setting now though and darkness is encroaching, this means more excitement as we can no longer see the waves that we were hurtling down earlier in the day…”
For PUMA, Cape Horn cannot come soon enough for the crew, according to Media Crew Member Rick Deppe “The guys are really tired today and it’s clearly visible in their faces,” he said. The guys are really tired today and it’s clearly visible in their faces. Furrowed brows, windburned skin, bloodshot eyes and croaky voices. I just spoke with Jerry (Jerry Kirby) as he came down off watch, I asked him how he was holding up? “I’m just hoping this off watch doesn’t get cut short”, he told me as he peeled off the layers “I’m Knackered” he added (he actually said something else). That’s Jerry and he’s one of the cheerful ones. He’s been filling in on deck for his opposite Casey (Casey Smith) who’s been flat out trying to fix the wheel so that we can make a few gybe’s as we approach the mark: the first of which we did about an hour ago. The glue is barely dry but we need that wheel!
Everybody is handling the cold and fatigue differently, some guys just get grumpy and quiet, and others get a little bit shorter in the fuse department, so sometimes my jokes don’t seem quite so funny. It’s normally quite jovial over here on the Il mostro and I’m hoping we get it back once around. But for sure there’s none of the usual laughing and joking on deck right now, I was just up there – I asked Rob (Rob Salthouse) for a quote, all I got was a look.
We are headed east towards the Chilean coastline where we will gybe again and then we make our approach to Cape Horn from a northerly direction, I understand this is quite an unusual situation even considering that our “high road” passage of the Southern Ocean took us well to the north of traditional tracks. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of the coastline and the mountains of Patagonia. It’s looking like a we’ll have a day time rounding of Cape Horn and probably be reasonably close considering our northern approach. We really get to see very little of the Terra Firma parts of the world in the nine months that it takes us to circumnavigate, so it’s always a treat when we do and an iconic landmark such as Cape Horn will be an extra special experience. Although having said that we certainly do get to see plenty of Ocean.
Guillermo Altadil, who has made six roundings, and would have chalked up his seventh had Delta Lloyd not sat out this leg, has fond memories of the “rock”.
“One thing remains the same since that first man crossed the border between the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, is that one little island with its lighthouse in one of the most remote areas of the world, and the feeling every sailor has when rounding Cape Horn,” he said.
“I can only imagine It must be similar to a marathon runner on arrival at the stadium, with only 400 metres left after his epic 26 miles, to look up and see the public awaiting him.
Ericsson 3 led the fleet round Cape Horn today, passing the legendary landmark at 12:22 GMT to add four points to its overall tally Followed by Ericsson 4.