Seven point lead

A releaved Stu Bannatyne describes the highlights on a tense leg into Rio on illbruck

Another harsh Southern Ocean leg over, it had everything you could wish for and most things you don't.

We had it all from the legendary strong westerlies for high speed running, snow storms, squalls and icebergs aplenty. We even had a run in with a large shark one rather inhospitable night. No one knows quite how he managed it but this rather unfortunate fish managed to wrap itself around our keel while were blasting along at 20 knots plus in 30-35 knots of wind. A quick spinnaker drop and backdown to remove the fish, rehoist the spinnaker and we were off again. Sounds easy but a manoeuvre like that in the middle of the night probably cost us in the vicinity of 10 miles - a very expensive fishing trip!

Although it was a harsh but ultimately very rewarding and satisfying trip through the southern latitudes the final 2,200 miles from Cape Horn produced some of the toughest racing mentally.

With big splits in the fleet it was impossible for us to cover all our opposition so we stuck to our race proven strategy of plugging away up the middle. It was really frustrating to see our lead of 70 miles first grow to almost 100 and then slowly but surely have it whittled away to just over 10 with a day or so to go.

It was hardly consoling knowing the breeze was better behind and that things would even up as the fleet compressed. I much preferred the 70 mile gap than the stressful situation of the last few days of light air with a couple of hundred miles to go and a 60 mile spread covering the first five boats. I have to say again how happy I am with the guys around me as we raced those last few days.

We maintained our watch system right to the end as we never were quite sure when the end would be! I think it is an important philosophy to run with the normal watch system as often as possible during the race. It is a system we know well and it works for us. Rather then go full court press at any stage we adapt our watch system to add more guys on deck as needed, this way we keep guys rested and don't have extra guys on deck unnecessarily.

Everyone was still working at 110% looking for every little puff of breeze and working the sheets right to the very last. We never for one minute took it for granted that we would finish first until we had the finish mark in sight a few boat lengths away. Then it was pure relief that overwhelmed the crew when the gun finally fired after being at sea for what seemed like an eternity.

The Southern Ocean lived up to its reputation and beyond.

Never before in the southern latitudes have I seen so much ice, we had bergs ranging in size from your average office block all the way down to small bits no bigger than your fist. One afternoon we sailed between two large bergs and had to weave our way through a minefield of smaller growlers and broken bits.

With a lookout posted at the shrouds calling us up or down we ducked and dived our way through without incident. A harrowing time nonetheless and certainly not to be attempted at night. Had it been dark we would have been forced to make a substantial course change and sail to windward of both bergs. Ray [Davies] has some great footage of that excursion through the minefield, I hope we all get to see it sometime; it really does offer a rare insight into Southern Ocean sailing.

There is nothing as adrenaline pumping or nerve wracking as driving with a spinnaker on at night in squally conditions. It's not too bad most of the time because we are forced to set up for the puffs not the lulls as you might in normal sailing. A reef in the main and a storm spinnaker might seem conservative when it is blowing 30-35 knots (on a normal day this would be full main and masthead spinnaker) but when the squall hits you are wishing for even less sail.

Often gusting over 40 and a couple of times we saw 45 the boat is very suddenly and violently overpowered. At the onset of the squall everyone is tensed, knowing it will be fierce and hard work for the duration, maybe 15 minutes, maybe 45 minutes, you can never be too sure.

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