Welcome to Cape Horn

Mike Sanderson updates us from ABN AMRO One, plus some amazing photos...

The crew of ABN AMRO One blew a collective sign of relief at lunchtime GMT (or roughly three hours after dawn local time) as they were the first to pass Cape Horn at 55deg 58S 67deg 17W and begin their return journey back up the Atlantic .

"We’re pleased to be here," commented black boat skipper Mike Sanderson. "It's a massive feeling of relief. It hasn’t been the most fun couple days to be fair. Just running down to Cape Horn in 30+ knots of wind with boats pretty close and everyone pushing pretty hard. And it was hard to give up miles. We’d give up some miles in a sched and it would be ‘are we taking it too easy’ - so it was the dreaded fine line."

Aside from this the wind cards hadn't quite fallen the way Sanderson had anticipated. "It was not an ideal scenario: It was building the whole time and the guys were bringing it up from behind when we didn’t need it and as we approached the Horn when it was getting windy we were getting into it first. So when it went from 20-30, which was all good, they brought that up from behind but when it went from 30-40 we got that first!"

Generally Sanderson reported that the last 24 hours the wind speed has often been in the high 30s with 40 in the puffs. In these conditions and approaching Cape Horn where the sea bottom shelves up steeply from around 3km to 100m and where above the water the wind is also funnelled between the South American continent and the Antarctic Peninsula, the sea was understandably roughly than it might normally be given the wind strength. "We were down to two reefs and a little tight luffed genniker at one stage," continues Sanderson. They set themselves a speed limit but even so still hit 35 knots at times.

Fortunately after rounding Cape Horn the boats are protected from the northwesterly winds and sea to some extent from being increasingly in the lee of the South American continent as they head for the Strait of Le Maire.

The passing of the Cape Horn was slightly anti-climactic for the ABN AMRO One crew, in particular Horn first timers Stan Honey and Rob Greenhalgh, as despite it being dawn, they passed 15 miles off. "It meant hopefully we didn’t park up in there as it can get fairly light," explained Sanderson. "You come out of 40 knots and next minute you are wafting around in 5 which is pretty disappointing." In lieu of this Stan Honey gave a verbal count down on their approach as the rest of the crew attempted to persuade Greenhalgh the dinghy sailor that it is tradition to be given a 'Cape Horn' haircut (the opposite of the crossing the Equator for the first time haircut, obviously).

Aside from getting a blasting - as the photos on these pages will atest - ABN AMO One has managed to leave the Pacific section of the Southern Ocean with her sail wardrobe intact. "We’ve had a fortunate Southern Ocean trip," agrees Sanderson. "Last night gave us a little taste of what it could have been on a different time or a different day, we could have certainly had our hands full."

Meanwhile on board as they get out of the torrential conditions, the crew are trying to dry the boat out down below. "It is wet as a fish down here. But our sleeping bags are dry and we have waterproof gear bags, so we have dry food, dry clothes and dry beds so we are pretty lucky by the sound of things," says Sanderson.

ABN AMRO One's rounding of Cape Horn came a few hours after the news of the problems with movistar's keel box, that is forcing their Spanish rivals to head for Ushuaia in effect repairs. "It was terrible to hear. I was really worried. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the Transaatlantic fleet in the Open 60s or Volvo 60s, a couple of days of running excess of 30 knots everyone is living on borrowed time a little bit," warns Sanderson. "The same sked where we saw she had lost miles, I thought something might happened to someone, although of course you never wish that on anyone. Someone losing a sail or something. For the fleet to hang so tough for so long was incredible."

The fleet has been certainly putting in the miles over the last few days. Sanderson reckons they posted a six hourly run of 143 miles a couple of days ago (which equates to 572 miles in 24 hours).

More alarming photos on page 2....