Left, right or centre?

The Volvo fleet has split in three

From Amer Sports Too Lisa McDonald explains the sensation of sailing at night through the Tropics

I had just crawled into the rack for a much-needed kip when I was nudged to get up for a sail change. Rubbing the tired out of my eyes, I stumbled on deck and was whirled into a hive of activity. I can't describe the sensation of: many hands equals light work, the need to get the job done quickly and efficiently which brought most of the crew on deck and the adrenaline running high knowing that just a small error in a sail change could lose us precious miles gained during the day. We worked hard all day with five to six boats in sight, monitoring the compass bearing and radar and working the squalls as best we know how.

We made good gains during the day on the fleet and we know how easy it is to lose them. The most difficult thing is to keep the same momentum through the night, you don't have visuals on the opponent (we've got one in our sights now and that's our boys on Amer Sports One) and sometimes just finding the horizon is hard enough without a moon or many stars to light up the sky.

As the sails don't 'auto-trim' themselves: the trimmers use a torch sparingly to check the fine-tuning on the sail trim at night. The bright light of a torch in the pitch black can have a blinding effect on deck, so one has to use them discretely with hopes that concentration isn't broken.

Playing the water ballast is an integral part of getting through these shifty conditions, with the wind up and down, left and right, one tank or two, all in or all out can determine whether you win or lose in this squall hopping game. We have many miles to go and the fleet is condensed, we are living from one position report to the next.


With Eleanor Hay trimming, Anna Drougge is steering Amer Too
into the dark off the Brazilian coast