Alpha Girls bring up the rear

madforsailing talks to skipper Helena Darvelid about their trip from hell

Leg two of the EDS Atlantic Challenge was a tough and frustrating one for all the girls on board Alphagraphics as they finally sailed into Portsmouth at 1900 last night some 15 hours after the first arrivals. As the champagne was sprayed, the relief on their faces seemed to disappear as the 48 hour countdown until the start of the next leg ticked on. Although glad to have completed the leg, all the girls are very focused and fully aware of the amount of work that needs to be completed before they can begin again on Saturday afternoon.

"It was a nightmare from the start. It was just one thing after another going wrong," said Swedish, Salcombe-based skipper Helena Darvelid. Thirty minutes before leaving Cuxhaven, Germany the crew knew there was something wrong with the electronics. Darvelid explained: "The computer wouldn't work with MaxSea (their chart plotting software). The Inmarsat C wasn't working and bizarre things kept happening - you'd switch on a light and an alarm would go off!" Darvelid believes that during a thunderstorm while they were in Cuxhaven, Alphagraphics was struck by lightning and it was this that sent their electronics haywire.

For Darvelid and her team, the whole of the journey was peppered with problem after problem. "I would enjoy it more if I got to do more sailing instead of fixing things," said the tired, but still smiling skipper. Because the electronics had crashed, the team had reverted back to the pencil and paper method with the navigator plotting positions, tacks and gybes (instead of letting the computer track everything on an electronic chart). Navigator Aimee Neale, 25, remarked: "It was tough but enjoyable too. It reminds you that you know how to do stuff and not have to rely on computers." The boat was steered on heel and keel. "Luckily it was to windward the whole way," said Darvelid.