Dongfeng in a hole

Leader loses 80 miles in 24 hours in the Volvo Ocean Race

The Strait of Malacca has always held a reputation for being treacherous, but rather than piracy on this occasion Dongfeng Race Team has been robbed of the wind as it makes its way down the channel between the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Yesterday morning, the Volvo Ocean Race leg 3 leaders was a comfortable 106 miles ahead of second placed MAPFRE. By the mid-afternoon sched as Dongfeng was WSW of Taiping, this had plummeted to 79 miles, was down to 60 miles by 1800 and 39 miles by 2000, as the leaders came in with pressure having sailed closer to the Sumatran coast. At the latest sched this morning Dongfeng's lead has dwindled to just 23 miles having the Franco-Chinese team having erred overnight across the Strait towards the Sumatran coast.

Yesterday Dongfeng skipper Charles Caudrelier anticipated this dramatic change of events: “The rate at which we are doing manoeuvres is intensifying,” he said. “According to the routing (software), we’re going to suffer a severe loss to our positioning in the next 24 hours. The other boats could get to within 10 miles of us, even though we’re 100 miles ahead of them right now. This has been a long and monotonous leg and it’s going to be such a shame if everything comes down to a Malaccan Strait lottery.”

The chasing pack suffered its own park up shortly after midnight UTC and the winner from this scenario was the Charlie Enright-skippered Team Alvimedica. Fifth going into the Strait of Malacca, the US-Turkish team had overhauled MAPFRE to pull up to second at the 0640 UTC sched this morning, through having taken a route marginally close to the Sumatran coast. However the boat-on-boat combat remains intense with only two miles separating her from Abu Dhabi Ocean Racing and by the 0930 UTC sched both Ian Walker's team and MAPFRE had slipped ahead of her again.

Unfortunately, worse is to come with the wind forecast to disappear altogether and then return ultra-light and on the nose. Added to the challenge that now they are approaching Kuala Lumpur, the fleet is obliged under the SIs for this leg to remain in the narrow channel east of the Traffic Separation Scheme that runs from here for the next 230 mile southeast to Singapore. Light wind close quarters tacking for this distance will be fun....And this is not to mention the sand banks, wrecks and the current...

Image below (click to enlarge) courtesy of Expedition and Predictwind

Sam Greenfield reports from on board Dongfeng:

Perhaps we’ve sailed to the other side of the Bermuda Triangle. We’re certainly not in Abu Dhabi anymore. And while the guys are scanning the horizon for fishing boats and floating logs I’m waiting for a lost WW2 bomber squadron to fly out from the next squall line. That would be a sight.

24 hours ago we were completely alone in the ocean and leading the fleet by over 100 nautical miles. Then we got a little bit closer to the gut of the Malacca Strait. We’ve had to dive on the keel to remove debris twice.

I asked Charles to describe the past day in just two words. “Nightmare. Nightmare.” He actually said it twice. “No wind, the current against us. Our boat speed to the goal, maybe it was zero. So it’s nightmare for a leader, and maybe we’re not a leader anymore.”

So we hit a wall where the wind refused to play. Then we lost 70-something miles to the fleet. And as of the last position report they’re only thirty or forty behind and it’s not the weather making everyone sweat.

How can I best describe the mood on deck? Think back to a road trip with dad. When the engine broke or the tire went flat. And no one dared speak and you held you breath or tried to climb into the trunk. That’s the feeling when we’re sailing less than 1 knot. That’s the feeling when the GPS says we’re sailing backwards and the anchor comes up on deck. That’s the feeling when fishing boat creeps by so close that you’re certain we’ll stop dead in their net.

I should mention that suddenly –yesterday evening- there were fishing boats everywhere and we weren’t alone anymore. And that every single one is an impossibly floating bucket with smooth oriental lines that looks like something out of ‘The Man With the Golden Gun.’

I think we sailed past his island at sunrise today [Ed: not unless they were seriously off course - that's in the Bay of Phuket...] When the sun sets their deck lights illuminate every corner of the horizon. I haven’t seen so much light since we sailed past Dubai.

We sailed so close to one last night that I could hear a man yelling something that sounded like, “nets!”

But when their gone it feels like we’re sailing to Jurassic Park. Menacing clouds and mysterious, odd islands that must be home to dinosaurs. Fistfights with dragonflies in the middle of rainsqualls that swallow up the wind and spit us back towards the fleet. Not being able to shower in the rainstorms because looking at dad the mood isn’t right. And all the Lindt Hazelnut milk chocolate is in a sad, sad state. But the jam and breads are holding up marvelously.

And I can’t get through half a task at my desk without one of the sailors running down below and shouting my name: “Sam! Come up here!”

A floating tree. Dolphins. A fishing boat just 10 meters off our port bow and I wonder if it caught the dolphin. Trash and bottles and floating shoes as far as far as the eyes can see. In summary, the past 24 hours have been more than great.

And if we are on the other side of the Bermuda Triangle I hope we miss the secret door because I can’t wait to see what the thick of this so called Malacca Strait has in store.