Once more into the South

The Daily Sail spoke to Emma Richards preparing for her first Southern Ocean gale

It's back to the Southern Ocean for Emma Richards. Currently her Open 60 Pindar is forging up the latitudes two days into leg three of Around Alone.

The line is a bit crackly as we speak to her over the Iridium satellite phone, but in theory it should be better than Inmarsat over the next few weeks as Iridium's coverage is global while Inmarsat has a tendency to drop out the further south you go.

The latest positions show Pindar in fourth sandwiched between Thierry Dubois who has taken a route to the east and Bernard Stamm who dived south and this afternoon has gybed back. Pindar has been sailing along the south side of the notorious Aguihas bank - a treacherous area of water in strong winds. Fortunately conditions since the start have been kind. "It’s been pretty good. It’s been light wind and a good time to break in gently," says Richards.

At the time of our conversation the wind was building with the onset of the race's first Southern Ocean depression.

"I’ve got 20-25 knots [from the northwest] and I’m doing anything between 12 and 18 knots while I’m on autopilot… and I’m going just south of east. It’s been north and north east before, but the last few hours it’s been shifting aft and I’ll be gybing south at some point in the next six hours." As the depression passes to the south, the wind is forecast to shift to the south east, but the question vexing Richards is when to change course.

"The wind is building now and I’ve got to make a decision when to gybe because if I wait for the big front to come through I will have gone too far east and slightly north of east by the time I get there. So I’ll have to be on the bad gybe for a little while before it gets good. But never mind..."

When we speak to her Richards sounds a little distracted as the sea is confused and the wind is gusting. At one point during a gust she disappears on deck. "28 knots - that enough to get us nearly broaching," she says when she returns.

With the onset of the cold front the wind is expected to pipe up tonight. "We’re expecting 40 odd knots forecast for midnight GMT and tomorrow morning," she says. "It’s not very much compared to what we have had…I’m just taking care at the moment. I’ve got my new reacher up and I think I’m going to pull it in earlier so that I don’t have any majors with it first time out…"

This new sail, fitted in Cape Town, is a moderate area masthead sail that tacks to the bow rather than the bowsprit. This is ideal for the Southern Ocean, although not as good as the low centre of effort small fractional kites and gennikers both Solidaires and Bobst Group can fly.

Meanwhile race leader Bernard Stamm has taken a different route and headed directly south. "By going south he gets the front sooner and on to a better gybe sooner," explains Richards. "At the beginning I wanted to get further south and I wanted stay more south of the fleet. As soon as I get further east I’m sure I’ll be wishing I had stayed south." The grass is always greener.

For Richards this is the third time into the Southern Ocean. The first was on board Tracy Edwards' maxicat Royal & SunAlliance on their attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy. The last time down here was earlier this year when she joined Lisa McDonald's Amer Sports Too in Sydney for the Volvo Ocean Race.

How does she feel to be going back into the South? Not really relishing it one gets the impression... "I know it is going to be cold, cold, cold, wet and miserable and I will wonder why I came back down again and as I come back out I will forget how bad it really was and I will think “yeah, that was okay” and that’s how it happens every time... I just hope it will be the same again," she says, but on the positive side "it is the best sailing in the world there is no doubt about that. There are big surfing waves and really great sailing just the downside of it is that it is cold and if you get into iceberg territory it is dreadful sailing."

Fortunately the forecast charts don't indicate there being much in the way of iceberg activity on the course, but this information is not always accurate. Certainly for the Volvo Ocean Race sailors who sailed across the South Pacific leg of that revent, straight through the middle of a group of bergs, it was a most terrifying experience and not one they wished to repeat.

On this leg there is a line of latitude the competitors must cross as part of the course and this will hopefully keep them out of berg territory.

For Richards two days into the leg she has still got the full on Southern Ocean experience ahead of her. At the moment conditions are still quite clement in the southern hemisphere summer. "We’re still in warm weather at the moment. I’ve only got one thin layer of thermals under my foul weather gear and I hadn’t even got a hat out last night so it has not got cold yet. But I expect in the next day or so as we get further south it will drop suddenly."

To help Emma cope with what will be an exhilarating but equally a cold, bleak and miserable few weeks that will see her spending Christmas and New Year at sea on her own - readers can send her an email of encouragement by clicking here...