Further hurdles

As Team SCA drops into last position in the Volvo Ocean Race

Image above courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

Leg two of the Volvo Ocean Race is taking on a Grand National element. After dealing with the tricky light winds earlier in the week, on Wednesday night (and into Thursday morning for the back markers) the wind filled in from the WSW allowing the VO65s to turn on to a northerly course, albeit still a long way east of the shortest route towards the Gulf of Oman. After a brief encounter with the Doldrums yesterday, the leader trio crossed the Equator at around 21:30 UTC last night and today they are lining up for another hurdle of the course - a second Doldrums crossing that will see the westerly breeze eventually fill in from the northeast.

Turning on to a northerly heading has shown the results from the boats' manoeuvring through the light conditions earlier in the week: the Ian Walker skippered Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing remains out in front, but still only 10 miles separates the lead trio, while Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team maintain their own personal match race that has been going on for almost a week now...

MAPFRE's easterly flier hasn't yet paid off and since the lead trio was first to the new breeze, they have extended leaving the Spanish VO65 now 114 miles behind and a crew, which after their dismal performance on the first leg, must be wondering why they didn't stick with the pack (still, it's given us something to write about...)

Meanwhile the battle off to the west is no longer a battle. In our last update on Wednesday, Team SCA had just tacked and passed clear ahead of Team Alvimedica, the girls heading northwest, Charlie Enright's crew continuing to the northeast. 48 hours on and the latter scenario has paid handsomely with Alvimedica having pulled 120 miles ahead of Team SCA.

Team SCA OBR Corinna Halloran explained what happened: "We have found themselves too far to the west. Our plan was to head ENE and pick up a wind shift that would then allow us to round up north, but as Sam explains, "we are not going to get the shift we were looking for. We are going to suffer a bad loss on the next few position reports but this a long race and there's still time."

"Or as Justine [Mettraux] explained: "It's happened so we have to move on and deal with it but it's really hard. Everyone else is reaching on one gybe and we need to gybe multiple times in order to get to the same place. It's the considerably slower route.""

Looking up the course, the second Doldrums crossing looks set to be around 5°N and could provide another opportunity for the boats behind to close up as their Doldrums crossing could be quicker. Once into the easterlies on the opposite side of the Doldrums, these winds will be the ones that propel the fleet north towards the Gulf, albeit sailing into an ever-so-slow header...so finally MAPFRE's position to the east might reap dividends.

Yann Riou reports from Dongfeng Race Team:

"We suffered a bit last night, but at least we learnt something!" Thomas Rouxel

Four days. Four days that we’ve been locked together with our Dutch friends. Four days that we’ve been fighting for every metre or boat length. So when we lose a mile and a half in one night, its a bit hard to digest. So we try to put that in to perspective by reminding ourselves that there are still 2000 miles to go.

And above all remember that we are learning so much [about how to make a VO65 go faster]. Because the best way to learn about boat performance is to do two boat testing, with two boats right next to each other. That's what is done in just about every type of high performance sailing. That's four straight days (and nights) of training we have just done. At different wind angles, strength and sail combinations…

"For sure the rhythm onboard would be different without a boat next to us. Its very tiring, but great learning," says Eric Peron

This intensity has an impact on life onboard. Always trim, trim, trim (the sails). There is someone in front of the computer almost the whole time, talking to the helmsman [sharing performance data and the gains or losses, metre by metre, against the other boat]. Its very positive, but very wearing !

"For me its very important to cross the Equator, in a race, at sea, during the Volvo. Its something that I will never forget for my whole life," Peron continues, albeit not in great spirits following his first Equator crossing yesterday

Some squalls, quite a lot of manœuvres, but nearly always some wind. The ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone, aka Doldrums) was pretty easy with us. A nice surprise for the guys and Black in particular, who was petrified about it after hearing from Wolf and Horace on the terrible leg 1 passage across this infamous zone. So this relatively easy passage yesterday was a big relief, and above all a great moment for Black to cross the Equator for the first time in his life on a boat, in a race, a race called the Volvo Ocean Race above all!

Matt Knighton reported at 0500 from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing:

After crossing the equator last night for the second time in the race, this morning we found ourselves at the front of the fleet, fast reaching north towards our home port. It’s safe to say that the three days of light winds and sticky sailing preceding this definitely have given Ian [Walker] cause for hesitation. With less than a dozen miles separating the top three teams, he’s eager to see how this 'drag race' plays out.

“I think we’re in good shape, we’re still in the lead so we must have done something right”, says Ian. “But I think we could’ve played it slightly differently, maybe sailed a little tighter to them when we gybed but we had our reasons and now we’re actually making quite good gains. Things change very fast out here.”

The light winds left over from the tropical depression were the 'great divider' in the fleet as Alvimedica, SCA and Mapfre still appear slow to get going again as we sail in a straight line north in tight reaching conditions. That straight line though isn’t straight enough for Ian as he’s constantly up on deck all day fine-tuning our angles.

“I think our strategy is just to stay west of the others in hope that we’re slightly more lifted and maybe have more pressure through the transition.”

That transition is the next question mark in the routing; a “secondary doldrums” between the Northeast Monsoon and the Westerly Trade Winds that potentially could shake up the leaderboard. For the first time in the race, Ian is surprisingly satisfied not being able to see the other two boats - we’re not sure if it’s confidence or the bliss of not knowing,

“I dunno, I’ve been thinking about that a lot. Part of me thinks you don’t sail the boat properly because you react to what other people are doing. At the moment I’m quite enjoying the freedom of being just close enough to be in touch but far enough away that we don’t obsess about what they do.”