Ready for launch

The Volvo Ocean Race fleet is just one day away from the Roaring Forties.

The start of leg two has thrown a whole range of sailing challenges at the Volvo Ocean Race fleet. Strong winds on the first night are hardly what any of the crews would want and when one so experienced at Ross Field describes it as "my worst first night at sea for a long time," you know things are bad. Now the breeze has gone light and everyone is fighting to get to the new wind.

The second night as sea was not so windy but there was still plenty for the crews to do. Canadian Finn sailor, Richard Clarke aboard illbruck reports "the last 24 hours have been the most eventful in my brief Volvo Ocean Race career. I can't say that if I knew we'd have too many days like that I would have signed up for this race. I was well briefed by my cremates on the perils of the Southern Ocean but who would have expected we would have experienced them so quickly."

Following illbruck's near sinking on the opening night Tony Kolb has now repaired the bow inspection port using portions of a floorboard and so much Sikaflex [sealing compound] that Clarke says, "a heard of rhinos would find it difficult to get through, let alone a few thousand gallons of water."

Like the rest of the crew Clarke is mightily relieved to have the problem resolved. "I do not want to spend another night on leak watch," he says. "This involved crawling into the forward most bow compartment dressed in your wet gear and armed with a flash light. Your job: to make sure we don't sink again. Job description: brace yourself into as stable a position you can manage in the pitch black bow compartment while it bounces off 15 foot waves as you and your flashlight try to see if any water is sneaking through the port. The only problem with this is that the only warning that a big wave is about to hit is you falling through the air and the only thing you can do is pray that you will land on a soft body part, and not on any pointy bits. I escaped from my few hours up there with only a few bruises but Jamie Gale has a nasty bruise and Waffler [Stu Bettany] a nasty gash."

Though sinking was not on the agenda for Amer Sports One, Grant Dalton's crew found themselves with plenty to do in the dark. "We had our hands full, close to midnight, when the jib halyard broke in rough seas with the wind gusting 40 knots," reports navigator, Roger Nilson. "We had to go slow and low, without headsail for almost two hours as we fixed the halyard. We did not dare to use the other one, as we did not know why the first one had broken."

For the djuice team the opening stages of the leg have been tough, but mercifully without any breakages. "To start a leg upwind is always pretty tough, says skipper Knut Frostad. "It takes a bit longer to get used to the daily rhythm, as sleeping, eating and getting dressed is quite a bit more difficult compared to downwind. Yesterday's cod stew for dinner ended up in the bilge by accident and very few of us had a taste of it at all."

Tactically, the situation is becoming more complex by the hour. Strong south easterly winds have given way to light easterlies as the fleet heads south across the area of high pressure that separates them from the surging depressions of the Roaring Forties. "We are all working to get south and past the high-pressure area into the strong westerlies on the south side," reports Gurra Krantz from aboard SEB. Gurra's Tactical analysis is just about spot on when he says, "all the boats are close and again we might see small differences snow balling into big distances once a boat gets into the new breeze."

Knut Frostad agrees. "Right now we are slowly heading into lighter breeze. Some how we have to cross the high ahead of us. We have a plan for that, but at the same time we know that predicting the centre of light air areas is difficult," he says. "One thing is for sure though, whoever manages to get through it first will have a pretty good chance of a head start to Australia. The strong westerlies are waiting for djuice, and we can hardly wait to get into them."

With a series of big low pressure systems stacking up down south crews and spectators alike can look forward to some spectacular sailing.

Position report ... page two