October 8, 2024
(Photo By Guo Chan / Green Dragon / Volvo Ocean Race)
(Photo By Guo Chan / Green Dragon / Volvo Ocean Race)

After more days going up wind than anyone in the Volvo fleet cares to remember, the fleet has finally cracked off and is experience ‘proper’ Southern Ocean conditions as the five boats race onwards towards Cape Horn and the second of two scoring gates on this leg of the course.

“What a relief.  Finally the breeze has swung enough to le us ease sheets and get the good ship going fast in the right direction,” noted Ericsson 4’s bowman, Ryan Godfrey.   “It has been days now that our distance to the finish has not budged, so what a pleasure the past 24-hours were, to be doing 20 knots and heading east,” he said.

Meanwhile, out in front, and averaging a comfortable 18.8 knots, with 3,000 nautical miles to run to Cape Horn is Magnus Olsson and his Nordic team onboard Ericsson 3.  Olsson now has a lead of 111 nautical miles over Ken Read and PUMA, with Ericsson 4 a further seven miles in her wake.

As waves roll over the boat, making eyes sting with the salt, four of the five crews are revelling in the speeds and the miles that are steadily clicking off now.  The fleet is now split over 400 nautical miles with Ericsson 3 in the north and Telefónica Blue (Bouwe Bekking/NED) trapped in painfully light airs in the south. 

The crew is not happy, but is making the best of it.  Although their 24-hour run was a miserable 266nm, compared with Green Dragon’s 491, now they are beginning to pick up speed as the conditions improve.  The team broke their forestay two days ago, which although sounds dramatic, is not such a serious a problem on a Volvo Open 70, according to Chief Measurer for the class, James Dadd.

“In these boats, they do little other than stabilise the rig,” says Dadd.   “The bolt ropes in the headsails take the load when hoisted, and you could virtually sail without a forestay a lot of the time,” he adds encouragingly.  He advises that Telefónica Blue have to consider their tactics in avoiding going hard on the wind, when the risks of not having the forestay as a back up to the boltrope are more concerning. 

Earlier in the week, when Ericsson 3 made her bold move to head north, Telefónica Blue’s Simon Fisher commented that the move could be one of genius or madness. 

Now he concludes that it was a stroke of genius, and the southern route taken by his team is, “well, not good, would be a polite way of putting it.”  As the rest of the fleet heads north and east, Bouwe Bekking and his men have to sit back and watch the rest of the competition blasting along, while they plod upwind.

For Volvo Ocean Race rookie, Ian Walker in charge of Green Dragon, 23 days is the longest he has ever been at sea, and the fleet has only just passed the half way point on this leg.  His Dutch navigator, Wouter Verbraak, was exhausted by all the upwind sailing, and reported that everyone on the boat was miserable.  “I find myself having to pull all my will together to get a smile on my face that keeps me going,” he said.
Wouter Verbraak – navigator Green Dragon sums up his feelings on the leg so far. “I am feeling completely exhausted, and find myself having to pull all my will together to get the smile on my face that keeps me going. Judging by the amount of dinner left in the pot, everybody is pretty much feeling the same. As Neal McDonald says: ‘misery loves company’.

In the back of my mind I can hear our team doctor saying: ‘You have to at least take in 5000 kJ everyday.’  Yeah right, I am forcing myself to stuff in as much as I can, but a few spoons of dinner and some muesli bars is all I can manage. Will have to rely on the fat reserves today (Unfortunately they went in leg one…).

Really, banging upwind in 25 knots is just not what these boats are made for, and certainly that holds true for humans as well. In addition, we are hardly making any miles toward Cape Horn, so I guess what my body is telling me is right; it is a pretty bad day all around.

Has the Volvo Ocean Race finally broken my spirits, you might wonder. No way! We just live a life of extremes. Today I couldn’t be happier, I am chatty, find myself making jokes and hanging out with the boys on deck, and generally go around with a big smile on my face. It is a beautiful day!

Sure out on deck it is absolute Armageddon. Big waves are rolling over the deck continuously. My eyes are red and sour from all the salt water and whilst grinding the mainsheet, I find myself non stop in knee deep water and hanging on to the grinding pedestal for dear life in the bigger waves.

What’s the difference? It is huge! Today we are charging south east directly towards the first ice gate, and there is no upwind sailing in sight for at least a week!

So I am treating my body with a double breakfast, a full lunch and dinner and all the bars, chocolate and liquorish I can get my hands on. The added bonus is that Damian (Damian Foxall/IRL) has his birthday today, so there is even a great bar of the best chocolate you can dream of going round. And believe you me; I do dream of that a lot.”
But, as soon as Green Dragon picked up her skirts and began charging towards the scoring gate, and with no prospect of up wind sailing for at least a week, appetites have returned along with enthusiasm. 

Kenny Read, skipper of PUMA, however, is just taking it one day at a time.  “Nearly every morning, when the sun comes up, I think to myself that the last 24-hours went really quickly and we are one day closer to our destination.  To be honest, I couldn’t tell you what day of the week it was or what day it was.  I couldn’t say, if my life depended on it, how many days we have been out here.  It’s just one day at a time.”

Rick Deppe, PUMA Media had this to say about the leg so far “And they’re off, for now anyway. Il Mostro is pointed at Cape Horn, sheets are eased and the boat finally gets to do its thing; chew up miles in the ocean. I can’t tell you how good it feels to be not going upwind, although the angle we are sailing right now is no more comfortable than if we were…..tipped over, bouncy and very wet.

You probably have a better idea where we are than I do! I just look over to  the nav station and see a little green boat in the middle of a big blue ocean, I guess  it’s a fair representation of the facts…..4000-ish miles to the Horn….and about halfway to Rio. Prior to the start the only way I was able to get my head around the sheer scale of this leg was with a globe! When you follow our route on a globe it soon becomes obvious that we are quite literally sailing halfway round the world in one hit!

Life aboard couldn’t be more routine, the guys are just taking it one watch at a time. When they’re on watch it’s a case of just sailing the fastest angle possible that brings us to wherever we are trying to get to and, this far out in the ocean, we are generally trying to position the boat favourably to future weather system, whilst at the same time making as much ground along the track as possible, its a balancing act. 

We seem to be doing OK with supplies, anything we didn’t bring enough of ran out ages ago….sugar, spray and wipe, suncream (that might be a problem down the road) …. and we are more than halfway through our twenty food bags, which comes with the added bonus that  valuable space on the boat is freed up making life a little more enjoyable. And its about 300kgs that doesn’t have to be moved any more.

Leg Five Day 23: 1300 GMT Volvo Ocean Race Positions
Ericsson 3 SWE (Magnus Olsson/SWE) DTF 5,743 nm
PUMA Racing Team USA (Ken Read/USA) +111
Ericsson 4 SWE (Torben Grael/BRA) +118
Green Dragon IRL/CHI (Ian Walker/GBR) +227
Telefónica Blue ESP (Bouwe Bekking/NED) +329

Delta Lloyd IRL (Roberto Bermudez/ESP) DNS
Telefónica Black ESP (Fernando Echávarri/ESP) DNS
Team Russia RUS (Andreas Hanakamp/AUT) DNS

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