Land ahoy!

Team Brunel continues to lead the Volvo Ocean Race charge north towards the Gulf

Image above courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

At the latest sched the Volvo Ocean Race leaders have closed on the coast of Oman - now just 44 miles offshore - and are about to enter the Gulf of Oman. As ever the match race between Team Brunel and Dongfeng Race Team continues with Bouwe Bekking's crew still leading, 12 miiles ahead at the latest sched. Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing has been unable to make inroads into the leaders and is currently 34 miles behind, although this has reduced from 44 miles yesterday evening.

While the remainder of the leg - up through the Gulf of Oman, through the Strait of Hormuz, between Oman and Iraq and then into the Gulf proper for the final 170 miles west to Abu Dhabi - looks like there will be precious few passing lanes, in reality the winds are locally so fickle in this area that remains a good opportunity for Ian Walker's team to play catch up.

It's interesting how match races seem to inevitable develop in this race. Since overhauling MAPFRE on Monday, Team Alvimedica continues to lead Iker Martinez's unfortunate Spanish team and is now 17 miles in front. As the chartlet above shows all the boats are currently on starboard tack as they attempt to lay the Strait of Hormuz on one tack. Unfortunately the front runners have been in slightly better breeze - as a result Team Alvimedica for example has dropped back by a further 85 miles on the race reader over the last two days (up to 313 miles at the latest sched).

Yann Riou writes from Dongfeng Race Team

Dongfeng’s skipper Charles Caudrelier assessment of the next 48 crucial hours “The coastlines of Oman and Iran are famous for their mountains. But the wind doesn’t like mountains much. Its going to be very tricky, and the boat that sails best in this area if likely to win the leg”

Well thats clear then. We’re going to finally end this long, monotonous tack, this speed test that has been as disappointing as instructive, and we’re heading in to a zone of light and variable winds where everything and anything can happen. For sure we’d prefer to be going in to it with a 15 mile lead, rather than a 15 mile deficit, but we are sure that everything remains possible - including being passed by Abu Dhabi by the way. This final part of the leg is going to be exciting!

Since a couple of days the temperature has dropped a little, and in fact is now quite pleasant. Shorts and t-shirts are the way to go inside the boat, and no need to stay in front of a fan to be able to breathe. But there is one thing that hasn’t dropped, and that is the heel angle of the boat. Thirty degrees on average, with some moments of 35. To move around you have to grab everywhere to hold on. Everything is complicated to do. Move across the deck, serve yourself a drink, make some food to eat. Down below, since the hull is curved, you can add another 5 or 10 degrees to the angle. To get in to a bunk, or in to my media space, I feel like I’m scaling a climbing wall. On leg 1 I had some non-slip shoes. On this leg, I have no more shoes at all! So its my feet that are being worn down. One more reason why it will be great to finish with this never-ending tack and move on to something else.