All into Cape Town

Leg four of Global Challenge finishes with plenty of dockside tales

Vaio has arrived in Cape Town in 12th place bringing to an end Leg 4 in another dramatic chapter of the Global Challenge.

Skippered by Amedeo Sorrentino Vaio arrived in 40d 16h 31m 25s having pounded to the finish in 10 knots, before being caught in lighter winds which had besieged the first 10 yachts.

The strong winds that the yacht had been experiencing through the night meant they were expected earlier but, similar to much of the fleet, the wind died again for their final approach to the line, in the shadow of Table Mountain. The wind, a powerful south-easterly, is typical of Cape Town at this time of year, commonly known as the ‘Cape Doctor’. Speaking on the dockside when he arrived Amedeo Sorrentino talked about his final stretch: “As the wind changed from light to strong I’ve never seen the crew speed so much and work so well.

Asked what the hardest part was, Amedeo replied, “Being in 11th position was tough.” Deciding they had nothing else to lose they went for a gamble, as Amedeo expands. “I wanted to head north in search of the tropical storms that are sometimes found up there. That would give us a better wind angle into Cape Town.

“We knew there was probably a 10-20% chance of it paying off but we just had to take the risk. It didn’t pay off but everyone was still pleased we did it. We were not too happy with the result but I am very happy with the crew’s performance. In the middle of the leg, the team decided not to look at the other yachts performance and instead to judge their performance against themselves. We had a very good last week, just a bit disappointed that the risk didn’t pay off.”

Asked about the best bits? Amedeo smiled: “The mood and the attitude on board. At this stage in the race their skills and ability have really developed and I have every confidence in them. If I were to sail the Southern Ocean again I would be pleased to do it with any one of them.”

Team Save the Children Skipper Paul Kelly turned 29 when he arrived in Cape Town yesterday evening, obviously keen to celebrate his birthday off the boat with some beers, real food and the company of his friends and family. He explained what it was like for the team racing in: "We had a beautiful run up the coast for the last 2 hours or so, then the breeze completely dropped and we just sat there in the bay waiting for the wind to fill in and all of a sudden we had 42 knots of wind. We crossed the finish line in dramatic style, the sea and the winds just whipped up from nowhere, it was just incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it - quite an amazing finish actually.

"We had an absolutely amazing spinnaker run from the Cape of Good Hope all the way up to the edge of Table Bay so we were incredibly lucky. The wind hole only lasted about half an hour so we’re very happy about that otherwise we’d have been out there all night.”

Asked what playing catch up-with the rest of the fleet was like, Paul continued: “When the medical evacuation had taken place we were completely demoralised sitting there having just dropped off our casualty thinking: 'what do we do now? We’ve got 5000 miles ahead of us' and morale could have plummeted to the bottom but we stuck at it. Team morale is far and away more important than anything else other than safety of the yacht and we’ve stuck at it, we had a great laugh, we really did. We laughed the whole way over here, even when the chips were down and in the really bad weather we still managed to keep smiling and laughing and it’s a testament to the team we’ve got that we managed to do that.

”It was difficult being at the front of the pack and going to the back after the medivac, but we made a promise to ourselves in Storm Bay in Tasmania that we weren’t going to come last and that was our motivation to keep going. The guys never gave up once and by coming 11th we fulfilled that promise we made to each other.”

Samsung, who arrived in 10th place have had a few hours since arriving to reflect on their adventure, delighted to have crossed the finish line but disappointed that their position did not reflect some of their earlier race triumphs.

Skipper Matt Riddell explained how he felt to be in Cape Town: “Oh, relieved, I’m relieved. The toughest, by far the toughest leg for us and for me personally. Coming in 10th place, we narrowly missed out on a 9th having sailed more than 6,000 nm.

“When the fog broke this morning we found ourselves next to BG Spirit which was amazing and we’ve been duelling with them all morning and really for the best part of the day. When they rounded the final waypoint to head into Cape Town harbour they had their spinnaker up and they’d run out of wind so fortunately we caught up. We were some 100 metres behind them and we really thought we were going to overtake them to 9th, which would have been the ultimate.

“Unfortunately their spinnaker refilled as they started to get a little bit more wind and they tore off. By the time we had our spinnaker up they were probably about 500 metres in front. We were so close to it, even a 9th would have been good, it would have been rewarding. But everyone’s here, safe, happy. The boat’s in one piece and that’s all that really matters and we’re still 5th overall. But that was a bad leg.”

Asked why it was bad he explained: “We left Sydney and we were 12th by the 1st sched so that was very disappointing. Obviously for me leaving home was really, really tough and sailing down the east coast of Australia I just wanted to turn back!

“We did actually manage to work our way back up to 5th and at that point, crew morale was sky high and I think that’s where we got complacent – we just thought “ah, this is business as usual and here we are, we don’t have to try anymore. We’re in 5th and the rest will take care of itself” and of course that was not the case and everything just went against us – we seemed to have a lot of bad luck (but I think you make your own luck as well) we just found ourselves slipping back from 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th then we had a clear gap between Me to you and BG Spirit; probably 20 or 30 miles at least. We managed to let those 2 slip past us as well which was very difficult when you’re used to doing pretty well.”

Asked if this had a negative effect on the crew’s morale he quickly answered: “No, I mean, we took a hit but everyone is just very happy to be here and I think we’ve got a great team spirit. I had a chat with the guys before we came into the V&A dock here in Cape Town and there were a few tears but they’re just a fantastic group of people and we were pushed to the limit, all of us, and we will come back stronger. Every team in this race that’s had a setback has come back 10 times stronger so watch out the rest of the fleet on leg 5!”

A disappointing leg for BG Spirit too, who secured 9th, although they were one of the hot favourites having won Leg 3 and previously standing as top overall on the leader board.

BG Sprirt's kipper, Andy Forbes, was optimistic however:” We started this leg 3 or 4 points clear of 2nd and 3rd place and we start the next leg up to Boston in the same position as those boats were to us so this race is still open to any number of boats at the moment. I think we just have to concentrate now on the next leg and pull it back and I’m very confident in the crew and the boat. Any boat can win this race at the moment and we just got to do our best.”

Talking about the tensions of the slow, arduous task of getting through the light winds he continued: “Dawn broke this morning and Samsung were half a mile off our beam and we worked our way out to a 2.5 / 3 mile lead as we came round the final waypoint towards the finish line. Then the great old Cape Town wind gods did their best for us and completely deserted us, and Samsung were closing up to within 200 yards behind us.

“However, we were fortunate enough to get our kite flying before them and took off to beat them across the line, I think with about half an hour’s difference between us and them. The nerves were a little bit ragged shall we say.

“To be blown from one end of the Southern Ocean to the other and then get within 100 miles of Cape Town and spend 3 days drifting around in 0.00 knots of breeze, and just trying to pick up currents and stuff is a frustrating finish to the race. I would definitely say it was the tougher of the 2 Southern Ocean legs but they’re behind us now and we can look forward to the Atlantic.”

Like the rest of the skippers, 8th place James Allen and his crew aboard Me To You also talked about the final tough few miles although added to this his sheer delight that the Southern Ocean is finally over and they are now in port. He commented: “It feels absolutely awesome. It’s been a very long time at sea, some pretty crazy conditions really, pretty hostile. We’ve had very little wind for the last 60 hours or so. Very, very little wind - we’ve been crawling along, sometimes at 1 or 2 knots so to actually arrive on the pontoon with all the friends and family and all the celebrations is a pretty awesome feeling.

“It’s incredibly stressful. We’d been watching the guys at the front who were obviously a lot closer than we were, and I can’t even imagine what it must have been like for them.

“We started off a couple of days ago 20 miles ahead of Samsung and BG Spirit and at the time we thought we had a quite comfortable lead but as we’ve slowly come north into lighter and lighter winds, and they’ve slowly been eating into that.

“As we were 3 miles away from the finish line this afternoon, actually going backwards at half a knot because there was absolutely no wind, we heard them ( BG Spirit) on the radio saying they were 10 miles away doing 5 knots! You’re really just looking over your shoulder the whole time; very, very nervous – lots to win and a whole lot to lose! It was a very nervous time and really quite stressful. You’re trying to do everything you can to keep the boat going as fast as possible and keep those guys behind you.

“I haven’t really slept properly in something like 60 odd hours, just getting half hour / 20 minute cat naps. The rest of the crew have been working the watch systems so have had a little bit more sleep but when they are on deck they’re working solidly. The conditions have been changing so quickly that in an hour watch they probably change the headsail 5 or 6 times and the spinnakers’ been going up and down, 7 or 8 times in the 4 hour watch. They’ve been working really, really hard.

Asked what the notorious Southern Ocean is actually like he expanded: “This time, we really have been there. We’ve had some horrendous storms, 60-70 knots of wind giving us really hard times and extremely cold weather. It’s the monotony of it, this kind of weather day in day out for 40 odd days. Every other day there’s a storm, every watch you’re being hit by freezing cold water. You’re constantly exhausted, constantly freezing cold and that’s what makes it tough. It’s just the relentlessness of it.”

And is there anything redeeming about it? “It’s an amazing kind of beauty, you can be in the worst storm, stood at the back of the boat, the winds blowing 50, 60 almost 70 knots at times, the boats almost out of control and you’re surfing down these huge waves. At the top of the waves you look as far as you can see and there’s the amazing deep blue water with white crests all over the place and it’s just an absolutely amazing place. You can’t really appreciate it until you’ve been there, and many people have told me you don’t really appreciate it until you’ve been there and come back again but it really is just an amazing place to go – an amazing experience.”

An amazing experience for more than 200 men and women from across the world who can feel proud at their incredible achievement - sailing across the great Southern Ocean, the wrong way! Further individual skipper interviews and chats with the crews who have completed their awesome Southern Ocean stretch will be sent in the next few days.

Final Leg 4 times:

Spirit of Sark 37d 9h 24m 12s
BP Explorer 37d 10h 13m 20s
Team Stelmar 37d 10h 52m 29s
Imagine It. Done 37d 13h 45m 58s
Pindar 38d 4h 35m 0s
SAIC La Jolla 38d 4h 41m 6s
Barclays Adventurer 38d 14h 34m 53s
Me To You 38d 21h 31m 40s
BG SPIRIT 38d 23h 48m 32s
Samsung 39d 0h 3m 33s
Team Save the Children 40d 2h 0m 26s
VAIO 40d 16h 31m 25s

Latest Overall standings:

	Yacht	Leg 1 Points	Leg 2 Points	Leg 3 Points	Leg 4 Points	Total Points
1	BP Explorer	11	14	11	14	50
2	Spirit of Sark	9	15	9	15	48
3	BG SPIRIT	11	13	15	7	46
4=	SAIC La Jolla	9	8	14	10	41
4=	Samsung	13	12	10	6	41
6	Barclays Adventurer	15	7	7	9	38
7	Me to You	6	9	13	8	36
8	Team Stelmar	7	5	8	13	33