Leg one complete

Ellen and her B&Q Castorama crew reach Jeju Island, South Korea

Ellen MacArthur and her three crew passed the finish gate off Jeju Island, South Korea today at 18:14:13 GMT to complete the first leg of the Asian Record Circuit to establish the first record in a time of 5 days, 11 hours, 10 minutes and 51 seconds. The 900+ mile leg from Yokohama, Japan to the gate off Jeju Island, South Korea has proved to be a challenge for the crew onboard the B&Q Castorama trimaran.

Ellen writes: “We did not leave in the most favourable weather conditions, which meant that we were fighting a constant battle to stay on track and on target. The gale force conditions and damage to the rudder meant that we lost a lot of time and it has been an upwind slog all the way towards this finish gate.

It has been a testing but interesting leg - sailing down the south-east coast of Japan just three days into this record, we tangled a fishing line which did some pretty severe damage to our starboard rudder that had to be replaced - luckily we carry a spare. We were pretty concerned about the damage we may have caused to the fishing gear but the skipper of the fishing vessel was only concerned for our safety which was pretty heart-warming. We then had to take shelter in the lee of Yaku Shima island to hide from the strong northwesterly gale that saw the breeze continuously over 40 knots and gusting 48 knots. These conditions produced one of those incredible grey, massive and powerful seascapes that our boat was fighting through. Once in the lee of the island all we could do was bide our time and sail up and down until we finally stuck our bows out and left the shelter of this island in the early hours of yesterday morning to navigate our way through a string of further islands off the southern Japan until we were in open water.

The islands were pretty impressive - lush green, mainly volcanic bringing strong smells of sulphur at times. Getting to the finish gate has been a slog, to be honest… On the wind the whole way in an uncomfortably and lumpy sea. We have all been in our survival suits as protection against the freezing water that douses the cockpit every time we jump off a wave.

Sleeping and eating have not been easy but with company nothing seems so bad. With Loik, Charlie and Shaun - life at sea is very different to sailing on your own. The whole stress factor is diminished because you know you are not on your own and the responsibility for B&Q’s safety is not just yours. Although sailing closer to land brings other risks that you may not experience deep in the Southern Ocean. In these waters, colliding with debris is a big risk, the seas are steeper and shorter caused by the proximity of the land and we have encountered many, many fishing boats so we are all in a constant state of alert.

But its great to reach this first landmark on our circuit - shame it's pitch dark but there you go. We are not stopping here but continuing straight into the second leg to Dalian on the north-east coast of mainland China. The weather is looking more favourable for this leg as the wind is expected to shift into the east and then further south in the next 12 hours so it won’t upwind and we could get to Dalian within 48 hours. Hopefully, we will be able to get out of these survival suits soon.”

Next objective:
Leg 2 - Jeju Island-Dalian
Target time 2 days, 5 hours
Distance 418 miles
ETA Saturday pm (1.4.05)

GALE FORCE CONDITIONS and damage to the rudder takes its toll: “This opening leg has proved tougher in more ways than one! The weather, the fishing boats, the damage to the rudder, the cold, the survival suits - THIS HAS NOT BEEN PLAIN SAILING!”
Without stopping <<B&Q>> starts second leg from Jeju Island to Dalian, northern China at 18:14:14 GMT – the self-imposed target time 2 days, 5 hours.
Click on www.asianrecordcircuit.com for latest information - 10 record legs, 6 countries, establishing 12 new records